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The  New  Testament 


An  account  of  some  interesting 
discoveries  which  bear  important 
testimony  as  to  the  time  when 
the  gospels  and  other  books  of 
the  New  Testament  were  written. 


/  By 
PARKE  P.  FLOURNOY,  D.D. 

Author  of  "  The  Search- Light  of  Hippolyttis  " 


INTRODUCTION  BY 
PROF.  BENJ.  B.  WARFIELD,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 


PHILADELPHIA 

THE  WESTMINSTER  PRESS 

1903 


Copyright,  1903,  by  the  Trustees  of 
The  Presbyterian  Board  of  Publication  and  Sabbath- 
School  Work. 


Contents 


PAGE 

Prefatory  Note v 

Introduction  (Prof.  Benj.  B.  Warfield,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. )   vii 

CHAPTER  I. 
False  Lights  that  Lead  Astray 1 

CHAPTER   II. 
New  Light  on  a  Martyr's  Testimony 18 

CHAPTER  III. 
The  Great  Light  from  the  Vatican 47 

CHAPTER  IV. 
The  Fuller  Light  from  Mount  Sinai    ....  84 

CHAPTER  V. 
Twin  Lights  from  Athens Ill 

CHAPTER  VI. 
Light  from  the  Land  of  the  Pharaohs    ....      13G 

CHAPTER  VII. 
Many  Lights  from  Many  Lands  or  Light  on  the 
Setting 157 

Appendix 179 

iii 


Prefatory  Note 


I  AYAS  encouraged  to  publish,  in  the  present 
form,  the  following  accounts  of  discoveries  by 
the  opinion  kindly  expressed  by  Dr.  Warfield 
of  Princeton  Theological  Seminary  and  Dr. 
Hersman  of  Union  Theological  Seminar}^, 
Eichraond,  Ya.,  of  an  article  published  in  the 
Presbyterian  Quarterly  on  the  three  earliest 
apologists.  They  both  urged  me  to  put  into 
book  form  this  and  other  articles  on  discoveries 
which  of  late  years  have  made  clearer  than 
ever  the  proof  of  the  traditional  dates  of  the 
gospels  and  other  books  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. 

To  every  reader  I  would  say  that  I  have  not 
only  found  much  pleasure  in  the  studies  of 
which  this  little  book  is  the  fruit,  but  have 
been  brought  to  feel  more  fully  than  ever  be- 
fore the  certainty  of  those  things  wherein 
we  have  been  instructed  about  Christ  our 
Lord. 

My  wish  for  every  reader  is  that,  more 
firmly  and  joyously  than  ever  before,  he  may 


vi  Prefatory  Note 

believe  that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of 
God ;  and,  believing,  may  have  life  through 
his  name. 

Parke  P.  Flourwoy. 

The  Manse,  Bethesda,  Md.,  Jan.  21,  1903. 


Introduction 

By  Prof.  Benj.  B.  Warfield,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 
Princeton  Theological  Se3iinary 

The  age  in  which  our  lot  is  cast,  is  an  age 
of  very  eager  research.  It  has  had  its  reward 
in  a  long  list  of  discoveries  in  every  depart- 
ment of  knowledge.  Its  scientific  achieve- 
ments can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  come  "  with- 
out observation."  Its  historical  and  literary 
discoveries  have  naturally  lain  a  little  more 
out  of  the  range  of  the  public  view.  Even 
some  of  these,  it  is  true,  have  been  too  epoch- 
making  to  remain  hidden.  When  Dr.  Schlie- 
mann's  pick  dug  out  Troy  from  the  superin- 
cumbent ages,  and  at  Mycenas  gave  us  back  a 
whole  forgotten  culture,  a  thrill  went  through 
the  whole  civilized  workl :  the  several  stages  in 
the  recovery  of  the  records  of  the  great  Meso- 
potamian  empires  have  been  watched  with 
even  intenser  interest  by  even  greater  multi- 
tudes. Nor  can  any  undue  modesty  be  at- 
tributed to  the  investigators  in  these  recondite 


viii  Introduction 

fields,  leading  them  to  underestimate  the  im- 
portance of  their  "finds"  or  to  refrain  from 
calling  public  attention  to  them.  Exploitation 
of  the  results  of  research  has  often  been  as 
eager  as  the  research  itself.  A  certain  kind 
of  knowledge  of  these  results  has  accord- 
ingly become  very  widespread.  Not  merely 
has  "  Babel  and  Bible "  become  a  familiar 
alliteration,  but  such  outlandish  names  as 
Oxyrhynchus  and  Akhmim  lisp  on  the  lips  of 
babes. 

Sometimes  this  exploitation  of  results  is  in 
inverse  ratio  to  the  value  of  the  discovery 
proclaimed.  Incredible  efforts  are  made  to 
give  immense  significance  to  the  veriest  trifles, 
and  a  deafening  clamor  is  raised  over  every 
scrap  of  papyrus  dug  out  of  the  dust-heaps  of 
Egypt.  A  fragment  scarcely  two  inches 
square  containing  a  sentence  from  some  old 
homily,  long,  and  doubtless  very  happily,  for- 
gotten, is  heralded  over  the  world  as  a  portion 
of  a  "  precanonical  gospel,"  with  startling  in- 
timations of  the  ruin  its  discovery  is  to  work 
in  the  authority  of  our  presently  accepted 
gospels.  A  but  little  larger  fragment  con- 
taining a  series  of  exceedingly  apocryphal "  say- 
ings of  Jesus,"  is  sensationally  published  with 
the    grossly   misleading    title   of   "  Logia    of 


Introduction  ix 

Jesus  "  affixed  to  it,  and  the  suggestion  made 
that  we  have  recovered  in  it  something  at 
least  very  similar  to  the  "  Logia  "  which  Pa- 
pias  attributed  to  Matthew, — though  this  old 
writer  certainly  meant  just  our  Gospel  of 
Matthew  by  this  designation,  despite  the 
efforts  of  a  certain  type  of  criticism  to  make 
him  mean  something  else. 

The  cognoscenti  may  smile  at  such  obviously 
despairing  attempts  at  the  creation  out  of 
nothing  of  support  for  insupportable  theories. 
But  what  is  the  uninformed  public  to  think  of 
it  all  ?  Ignorant  of  the  real  state  of  affairs, 
and  startled  out  of  its  indifference  by  the 
exploitation  of  such  discoveries  as  these,  a 
certain  uneasiness  is  growing  up  among  us, 
and  Babylon  bids  fair  to  become  again  a  name 
of  dread  and  Egypt  a  land  from  whose  sands 
may  be  expected  to  spring  up  any  day  a 
monster  to  devour  us.  There  is  great  need 
that  some  one  should  tell  the  people  plainly 
and  with  a  sufficient  body  of  illustration  w^hat 
have  been  the  real  results  of  the  investigations 
of  the  last  quarter  of  a  century,  and  what  is  the 
real  bearing  they  have  on  the  documents  of 
our  faith.  It  is  this  service  that  Dr.  Flournoy 
is  rendering,  first  in  his  excellent  Search- 
light   of   St.    Ilippolytus    published    a    few 


X  Introduction 

years  ago,  and  now  again  in  the  present 
volume. 

Paradoxical  as  it  may  sound,  it  is  easy  both 
to  overestimate  and  to  underestimate  the  impor- 
tance of  such  discoveries  as  Dr.  Flournoy  re- 
counts to  us  in  this  interesting  narrative. 

It  is  easy  to  overestimate  their  importance. 
It  is  a  very  unwholesome  state  of  mind  which 
is  always  groping  for  "  confirmations  "  of  the 
genuineness,  trustworthiness  or  authority  of 
our  sacred  writings.  And  it  is  as  unjustified 
as  it  is  unwholesome.  We  have  not  accepted 
these  writings  as  authentic  documents  of  the 
apostolic  age  and  the  infallible  word  of  God, 
on  flimsy  grounds.  We  need  no  new  evidence 
to  establish  them  in  our  confidence.  The 
mass  and  cogency  of  the  evidence  already  in 
hand  is  so  great,  indeed,  that  it  simulates  in- 
finity and  hardly  admits  of  substantial  in- 
crease. Carrying  coals  to  Newcastle  is  pro- 
verbially unimportant  labor.  He  who  is  seek- 
ing for  new  items  of  evidence,  may  certainly 
find  them,  and  there  is  no  reason  why  he 
should  not  rejoice  in  them :  but  it  is  all  very 
much  a  work  of  supererogation. 

Even  more  may  perhaps  be  fitly  said.  Search 
we  never  so  diligently,  we  need  not  expect 
to   find  anything  in  itself  of  palmary  impor- 


Introduction  xi 

tance.  The  Christian  Church  in  her  course 
through  the  ages  has  not  dropped  out  of  her 
knowledge  the  things  that  made  most  for  her 
stability  and  peace.  Most  of  the  documents 
that  have  been  lost  have  been  lost  because 
they  were  comparatively  not  much  worth 
keeping.  Accordingly  most  of  the  documents 
that  can  be  found,  we  could  do  very  well 
without  finding.  What  has  been  specially 
worth  preserving  has  been,  as  a  rule,  specially 
carefully  preserved.  The  enthusiasm  of  dis- 
covery sometimes  leads  scholars  to  talk  of 
"  revolutions  "  that  are  to  be  wrought  by  the 
documents  they  have  brought  to  light.  It  is 
a  perhaps  not  unnatural  illusion.  When  the 
enthusiasm  of  discovery  cools  and  normal 
judgment  reasserts  itself,  it  will  be  found  that 
the  balance  hangs  at  much  its  old  angle.  The 
lineaments  of  the  primitive  church,  drawn 
on  the  credit  of  the  major  documents  that 
have  been  kept  in  the  continuous  possession  of 
men,  will  not  be  much  altered  on  the  faith  of 
the  minor  documents  that  have  for  a  time 
passed  out  of  notice. 

We  need  only  to  ask  ourselves  what  impor- 
tant gains  for  the  chief  concerns  of  the  faith 
have  accrued  to  us  from  the  most  interesting 
of  recent  discoveries,  to  perceive  clearly  how 


xii  Introduction 

subordinate  a  role  they  must  play.  What  do 
we  learn  from  the  Akhmim  fragment  concern- 
ing the  composition  or  history  of  our  gospels  ? 
Practically  nothing.  What  new  information 
as  to  the  original  form  or  authority  of  our 
gospels  does  the  Lewis  palimpsest  bring  us? 
None  whatever.  What  new  fact  of  impor- 
tance do  we  gain  for  the  early  history  of  the 
gospels  in  the  church  from  the  recovery 
of  Tatian's  Diatessaron  f  Not  one.  We 
knew  before  its  recovery  that  the  Diatessaron 
was  just  a  harmony  of  our  four  gospels;  and 
on  its  recovery  it  is  naturally  seen  to  be  just  a 
harmony  of  our  four  gospels.  The  absurdity 
of  denying  it  to  be  just  a  harmony  of  our  four 
gospels  was  practically  as  great  before  as  it  is 
after  its  recovery :  and  its  recovery  has  not 
rendered  it  impossible  for  absurd  men  to 
continue  to  perpetrate  absurdity.  The  au- 
thor of  Suj)ernatural  Religion^  in  his  new 
edition  published  last  year,  still  denies  the 
Diatessaron  to  be  a  simple  harmony  of  our 
gospels :  he  says  the  discovered  harmony 
is  not  Tatian's. 

It  is  really  impossible  to  correct  foregone 
conclusions  by  multiplication  of  evidence. 
What  overwhelming  evidence  will  not  ac. 
complish,  still   more   overwhelming    evidence 


Introduction  xiii 

will  no  more  accomplish.  A  man  submerged 
under  a  hundred  fathoms  of  water  will  be 
no  more  drowned  if  you  make  it  five  hundred. 
Even  if  somebody  should  draw  out  of  some 
hiding-place,  to-morrow,  a  complete  copy  of 
Papias'  Edcpositions  of  the  Oracles  of  the  Lord, 
which  is  perhaps  the  most  interesting  of  very 
early  Christian  documents  yet  awaiting  re- 
covery, there  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  we 
should  reap  substantial  evidential  gains  from 
its  recovery.  Anybody  who  wishes  to  know, 
can  know  now  what  the  book  was.  And  any- 
body who  wishes  absurdly  to  deny  that  it  was 
what  it  was,  could  still  deny  it,  with  the  book 
in  his  hand,  as  reasonably  as  he  can  now. 
Those  whom  suflBcient  evidence  will  not  con- 
vince, will  not  be  convinced  by  a  resurrec- 
tion from  the  dead.  It  is  vain  to  hope  that 
the  task  of  Christian  Apologetics  will  be  sub- 
stantially lightened  by  discoveries  of  this 
kind.  The  difficulty  of  the  task  of  Christian 
Apologetics  does  not  arise  from  insufficiency 
in  the  evidence  it  is  prepared  to  offer.  It  lies 
in  a  very  different  quarter. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  as  we  have  said,  it 
is  very  easy  to  underestimate  the  importance 
of  discoveries  of  this  kind.  The  term  "im- 
portance" is  a  relative  term,  and  there  needs 


xiv  Introduction 

to  be  asked  on  each  occasion  of  its  employ- 
ment, "  Of  importance  for  what  ? "  Is  the 
difference  of  a  thousandth  part  of  an  inch  be- 
tween two  measurements  of  importance  ? 
That  depends  on  what  we  are  measuring  and  for 
what  end.  Out  in  the  fields,  where  we  are 
measuring  the  stone-fence  which  is  to  be  paid 
for  at  so  much  a  rod,  it  is  of  no  importance 
whatever.  It  is  of  no  importance  to  the  dry- 
goods  clerk  who  is  measuring  off  a  dozen 
yards  of  muslin  for  a  customer's  dress.  In 
the  observatory  where  the  astronomer  is 
measuring  the  parallax  of  a  fixed  star,  it  is, 
however,  of  the  utmost  importance.  An  error 
of  this  dimension  in  this  measurement  is  noth- 
ing less  than  immense.  Micrometers  are  of  no 
use  whatever  in  the  ordinary  concerns  of  life, 
and  the  intrusion  of  them  into  that  sphere 
would  not  only  be  an  impertinence  but  an  in- 
tolerable nuisance.  They  nevertheless  in 
their  own  sphere  of  usefulness  possess  an  im- 
portance that  is  literally  inestimable. 

Somewhat  similarly,  discoveries  in  the 
domain  of  early  Christian  literature  which 
have  no  importance  for  the  life  and  faith 
of  the  Christian  Church  may  yet  each  have  a 
very  large  importance  in  the  appropriate  sphere 
of  investigation  to  which  it  belongs.     The  dis- 


Introduction  xv 

covery  of  the  Lewis  palimpsest,  for  example, 
cannot  be  said  to  possess  any  significance  for 
the  Christian  life.  But  it  has  high  importance 
for  the  history  of  the  Syriac  Bible.  Some 
very  interesting  outstanding  questions  in  that 
sphere  of  investigation,  it  goes  far  toward 
settling ;  and  it  raises  some  new  problems  of 
its  own  which  the  student  finds  exceedingly 
interesting  and  full  of  meaning.  It  even  has 
some  importance,  through  its  significance  for 
the  history  of  the  Syriac  Bible,  for  the  history 
of  the  text  of  the  New  Testament ;  and  thus 
plays  its  part  in  the  laborious  task  of  the 
ascertainment  of  the  exact  text  of  the  New 
Testament.  It  is  easy  to  exaggerate  the  part 
it  plays  in  this  great  work,  and  some  very 
strange  things  have  been  said  about  it  in  this 
relation — which,  however,  can  be  easily  par- 
doned the  enthusiasm  of  discovery.  Similarly 
Tischendorf,  when  he  found  the  great  Codex 
Sinaiticus,  in  the  fii^st  flush  of  exhilaration 
lost  temporarily  the  balance  of  his  judgment 
and  was  inclined  to  treat  it  as  the  decisive 
witness  to  the  New  Testament  text.  He  even 
published  an  edition  of  his  New  Testament  in 
which  the  readings  of  the  new  codex  were 
given  preponderating  authority.  A  very  few 
years  sufficed  to  correct  his  error  and  to  re- 


xvi  Introduction 

adjust   the   relative  values   of  the  witnessing 
documents  more  equitably. 

What  we  need  most  particularly  to  bear  in 
mind,  however,  is  that  in  all  matters  of  this 
kind  we  are  in  a  region  in  which  measure- 
ments are  taken  with  a  micrometer.  When 
we  speak  of  things  important  and  unimpor- 
tant for  textual  criticism,  for  instance,  we 
are  talking  in  terms  of  a  scale  of  measure- 
ments which  has  no  application  and  no 
meaning  in  the  domain  of  common  life. 
There  is  no  extant  text  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment that  is  not  abundantly  pure  for  our 
ordinary  use,  as  we  strive  to  build  ourselves 
up  in  our  most  holy  faith,  and  to  furnish  our- 
selves completely  unto  everj^  good  work.  But 
the  textual  critic  operates  with  other  stand- 
ards, and  to  him  it  is  a  matter  of  importance 
which  of  two  prepositions  meaning  "  from  "  is 
used  in  a  given  passage  or  how  an  aorist  verb 
is  spelled, — whether  after  the  so-called  "  Alex- 
andrian "  fashion  with  an  "  a,"  or  after  the  so- 
called  "  Classical "  style,  with  an  *'  o."  It  is 
of  high  importance  for  him,  investigating  such 
things,  to  ascertain  what  was  the  type  of 
Greek  text  that  underlies  the  earliest  Syriac 
translation ;  and  as  the  Lewis  palimpsest 
helps    him  notably  in  this  investigation,  it  ap- 


Introduction  xvii 

peals  to  biiii  as  a  highly  important  dis- 
covery. 

Similarly  measured  by  the  micrometer  of 
detailed  investigation,  each  new  discovery  in 
the  domain  of  early  Christendom  has  its  own 
high  value.  Do  we  wish,  for  example,  to  work 
out  the  history  of  the  subterraneous  literature 
of  primitive  Christianity, — the  literature  that 
represented  in  that  time  the  publications  in 
our  day  of  Dowieism  and  Christian  Science 
and  Mormonism  ?  To  the  student  in  this  de- 
partment of  research,  the  Akhmim  fragment, 
the  Oxyrhynchus  papyrus,  and  the  like,  com. 
mend  themselves  as  most  important  discover- 
ies. Do  we  wish  to  work  out  the  detailed 
history  of  the  conflict  of  early  Christianity 
with  the  civil  authorities,  in  its  effort  to  make 
standing  room  for  itself  in  the  world  ?  Then 
the  discovery  of  Aristides'  Apology  will  ap- 
peal to  us  as  of  quite  exceptional  importance. 
Are  our  studies  given  to  tracing  out  the  his- 
tory of  the  comparative  study  of  the  gospels  ? 
Then  the  recovery  of  the  text  of  Tatian's  har- 
mony, even  in  a  translated  and  somewhat  re- 
vised shape,  will  be  hailed  by  us  as  of  the  ut- 
most value. 

Of  course  no  department  of  Christian  study, 
any  more  than  any  Christian  himself,  stands 


xviii  Introduction 

off  to  itself  in  isolation  from  all  other  depart- 
ments. Each  works  in  with  all  the  others 
in  the  complex  activity  of  the  Christian 
scholarship  of  the  day,  as  it  strives  to  perfect 
its  multiform  task  of  thoroughly  exploring  the 
history  of  the  founding  and  growth  of  our  re- 
ligion in  the  world.  What  is  important  for 
any  one  of  them,  therefore,  is  through  it  im- 
portant for  the  total  which  their  sum  makes 
up ;  and,  through  it,  for  the  whole  intellectual 
life  of  organized  Christianity.  Accordingly, 
the  intelligent  Christian  sympathetically  feels 
the  importance  of  each  and  everything  that 
any  Christian  worker  in  any  sphere  of  investi- 
gation finds  important  for  his  work.  Only  we 
must  guard  ourselves  from  transmuting  its 
relative  importance  into  an  absolute  impor- 
tance, under  a  different  scale  of  measurements, 
and  thus  coming  to  fancy  that  in  some  way 
Christianity  itself  hangs  on  it. 

This  is  not  to  say  that  these  discoveries  have 
no  apologetical  value.  It  is  to  say  that  it  is  im- 
portant that  their  apologetical  value  should  be 
truly  estimated.  For  this,  it  is  necessary  to  re- 
mind ourselves  of  the  real  apologetical  situation. 
This,  as  has  been  already  hinted,  is  the  precise 
opposite  of  apologetical  dearth.  The  constant 
conflict   that   necessarily  reigns   in  a   depart- 


Introduction  xix 

ment  the  very  function  of  which  is  conflict,  is 
the  result  of  the  continual  repetition  of  the 
following  process.  Some  thinker,  unwilling 
to  believe  in  the  supernatural  character  and 
origin  of  Christianity,  as  evinced  in  the  evi- 
dence marshaled  by  the  apologist,  asks  him- 
self how  he  can  reconstruct  the  factors  that 
entered  into  the  origin  and  development  of 
Christianity  so  as  to  present  it  as  a  natural 
product.  He  carefully  constructs  for  himself 
a  hypothetical  history  of  its  origin  and  growth 
with  the  omJssion  of  all  supernatural  factors, 
seeking  to  rearrange  the  facts  of  history  so  as 
to  permit  this.  In  doing  so  he  comes  into  re- 
peated conflict  with  the  facts  as  witnessed  by 
the  testimony  in  hand.  He  is  thus  led  arti- 
ficially to  manipulate  this  testimony,  in  order 
to  escape  the  supernaturalistic  implication. 
Thus  he  builds  up  an  elaborate  structure,  on 
which  not  only  the  most  wide  and  accu- 
rate learning  but  shining  talents  and  often 
genius  itself  have  been  expended.  In  the 
process,  he  has,  for  example,  plausibly  ex- 
plained away  all  the  evidence  that  Tatian's 
Diatessaroii  was  a  harmon}^  of  our  four  gospels : 
suggesting  a  doubt  here,  intruding  a  brilliant 
conjecture  there,  presenting  a  new  interpreta- 
tion there,  and  so  manipulating  the  whole  that 


XX  Introduction 

his  readers  are  almost  ready  to  disbelieve  the 
testimony  of  their  own  eyes  and  accept  in- 
stead this  fairy-tale  as  truth.  Then  Tatian's 
Diatessaron  suddenly  turns  up  and  clears  the 
atmosphere.  JN^othing  really  new  has  been 
discovered.  It  was  perfectly  well  known  be- 
fore just  what  the  Diatessaron  was.  But 
men's  confused  minds  have  been  clarified  ;  all 
the  plausible  reasoning  by  which  they  were  in 
danger  of  being  deceived  is  swept  away ;  and 
things  are  allowed  to  fall  back  into  their  old 
and  proper  places. 

Kow  just  this  process  has  been  going  on 
over  and  over  again,  until  it  has  become  a 
classical  remark  that  every  new  discovery 
drives  a  new  nail  into  the  coffin  of  critical 
unbelief.  The  metaphor  is  a  peculiarly  happy 
one.  It  implies  that  critical  unbelief  is  al- 
ready, rightly  viewed,  dead  and  safely  encof- 
fined :  and  it  takes  note  that  the  progress  of 
research  has  only  been  steadily  driving  su- 
perfluous nail  after  superfluous  nail  into  the 
lid.  That  lid  must  be  pretty  nearly  all  nails 
by  now. 

It  is,  however,  not  nearly  so  widely  known 
as  it  ought  to  be  that  this  is  the  precise  state 
of  the  case.  And  it  is  just  here  that  these  ex- 
cellent  books  of   Dr.    Flournoy's    have    their 


Introduction 


XXI 


function.  They  come  forward  to  tell  the  busy 
Christian  Avho  has  had  little  time  to  inform 
himself  at  iirst-hand  of  the  real  condition  of 
affairs,  precisely  how  things  really  are.  It  is 
a  very  important  service  that  Dr.  Flournoy  is 
thus  rendering  the  Church:  and  he  is  doing  it 
admirably.  We  owe  him  our  thanks  for  it ; 
and  we  accord  them  to  him  most  heartily. 

Pmic£ion,  February  1,  1903. 


FALSE  LIGHTS   THAT  LEAD  ASTRAY 

I.    The   Old   French   Teacher  and  His 
Startling  Assertion 

In  Eichmond,  Yirginia,  for  many  years  be- 
fore the  Civil  War,  there  stood,  or  more  prop- 
erly, sat,  a  rather  strange-looking,  one-storied, 
wooden  building,  with  a  little  sign  over  the 
door,  on  which  were  inscribed,  if  I  remember 
aright,  the  words,  "  Select  Classical  School." 
In  it  was  to  be  found  daring  the  day,  except  at 
mealtimes,  and  even  before  day  and  late  into 
the  night,  an  indefatigable  worker — a  rather 
short,  muscular  man  of  peculiar  appearance 
and  manners.  He  was  one  of  that  army  of 
teachers  from  New  England  that  invaded  the 
South  long  before  the  cry  "  On  to  Eichmond  " 
was  raised  by  an  army  of  a  very  different  kind. 
The  South  owes  a  great  debt  of  gratitude  to 
these  teachers,  who  side  by  side  with  those 
educated  in  southern  colleges  and  universities, 
did  the  great  work  of  dispensing  the  priceless 


2  New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

benefits  of  preparatory  education  in  advance 
of  the  organization  of  a  public-school  system. 

This  one  was  a  good,  earnest,  Christian  man. 
He  had  his  faults,  no  doubt  (and  who  of  us  has 
not  some  of  his  own  ?),  but,  except  for  some  in- 
firmities— or  the  opposite — of  temper,  David 
Turner  lived  for  thirty  or  forty  years  in  Rich- 
mond an  unusually  blameless  and  eminently 
useful  life.  The  scholars  who  went  from  his 
school  to  the  University  of  Virginia,  there  to 
attain  to  the  degree  of  A.  M.,  and  thence  to 
Germany,  whence  they  returned  with  Ph.  D. 
added  to  their  names,  were  his  pride ;  and  he 
never  failed  to  keep  the  eyes  of  those  under  his 
ferule  on  the  noble  heights  which  these  heroes 
had  gained.  There  must  be  many  elderly  men, 
reared  in  Richmond  during  those  years,  who 
remember  with  gratitude  the  earnest  exhorta- 
tions and  careful  training  of  this  faithful 
teacher. 

In  the  modern  language  department  of  this 
school  there  presided,  during  certain  hours  of 
the  day,  an  old  Frenchman,  Monsieur  Michard, 
no  less  remarkable  in  appearance  and  other 
characteristics  than  his  chief.  He  was  a  wiz- 
ened, wrinkled  mite  of  a  man,  looking,  as  he 
w^ent  out  of  the  door  on  a  March  day,  wrap- 
ping his  old  surtout  about  his  emaciated  form, 


False  Lights   That  Lead  Astray  3 

as  if  the  wind  would  actually  take  him  up  and 
blow  him  away  like  the  last  leaf  of  autumn. 
He  had  been  a  lawyer,  long  ago,  in  Lyons,  he 
told  us  ;  and  for  political  reasons,  had  found  it 
convenient,  if  not  absolutely  necessary,  to  leave 
his  nativ^e  land.  Conversation  was  by  no 
means  forbidden  in  the  modern  language  room 
when  the  lesson  w^as  through  with  before  the 
hour  was  out,  and  M.  Michard  did  not  disdain 
to  regale  the  inquiring  minds  of  his  pupils  with 
other  things  besides  the  French  and  Spanish 
languages  which  he  had  to  teach  them.  He 
was  a  Eoman  Catholic,  and  as  often  happens 
in  the  case  of  educated  men  in  that  communion, 
there  was  in  him  the  strange  combination  of  a 
certain  kind  of  devoutness  with  skepticism. 

One  day  he  astonished  at  least  one  of  his 
pupils  by  saying,  in  effect,  that  the  New  Tes- 
tament could  hardly  be  a  divine  revelation,  be- 
cause, as  he  asserted,  besides  the  writings  of 
which  it  was  composed,  there  ^vere  perhaps  a 
hundred  others  about  as  good  as  those  which 
had  been  collected  and  made  into  the  New 
Testament. 

Providentiall}^,  an  antidote  was  at  hand. 
Richmond  was  favored  with  the  ministry  of 
the  gifted  and  devoted  Dr.  Thomas  Yerner 
Moore  at  that  time,  and  the  troubled  pupil 


4  New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

found,  under  his  ministry,  a  great  deliverance 
from  a  terrible  fate  through  the  gospel  con- 
tained in  that  very  New  Testament  on  which 
the  old  teacher  had  cast  these  aspersions.  He 
felt  that  it  must  be  of  God,  as  it  brought  that 
help  in  dire  extremity  which  nothing  else 
could  furnish,  and  which  nothing  else  had  the 
slightest  tendency  to  furnish.  The  conviction 
he  had  was  like  that  of  the  starving  man  when 
food  has  been  brought  to  save  his  life  and  he 
has  felt  its  reviving  and  sustaining  power  from 
the  first  morsel  he  has  taken.  Finding,  by  his 
own  experience,  this  gospel  to  be  "  the  power 
of  God  unto  salvation,"  he  could  not  help  be- 
lieving that  the  book  containing  it  was  of 
God. 

This  incident,  however,  has  caused  that  pupil 
of  the  old  Frenchman  to  take  a  deep  interest 
in  several  recent  discoveries  Avhich  have  shown 
very  clearly  the  falsity  of  the  old  man's  asser- 
tion and  of  the  implication  contained  in  it. 

His  feeling,  on  coming  to  know,  in  later  life, 
of  the  evidence  from  early  Christian  literature 
that  this  assertion  had  only  a  specious  basis  in 
the  existence  from  an  earlier  or  later  time  of  a 
large  number  of  "pious  frauds  "  going  under 
the  general  name  of  l^ew  Testament  Apoc- 
rypha, w^hich  were  never  universally  received 


False  Lights   That  Lead  Astray  5 

by  the  Church  as  inspired,  was  one  of  relief. 
AYhen,  in  more  recent  years,  discoveries  were 
made  which  completely  vindicated  the  genuine- 
ness of  the  ISTew  Testament  writings,  and  es- 
pecially the  four  gospels,  his  feeling  was  like 
what  that  of  a  son  might  be  whose  father  had 
died  under  false  accusations — which  he  could 
not  disprove,  though  absolutely  sure  from  his 
knowledge  of  his  father's  character  that  they 
were  false — when,  among  that  father's  papers 
he  had  found  the  full  proof  of  his  innocence 
and  could  publish  it  to  the  world. 

11.    Haeckel  and  the  Gospels 

The  assertion  of  M.  Michard  about  the  selec- 
tion of  the  ]N'ew  Testament  books  from  a  large 
number  of  similar  writings  was  probably  based 
on  a  story  which  has  long  been  a  favorite  ar- 
ticle of  the  stock-in-trade  of  infidels  who  make 
pretensions  to  leai^ning,  and  which  has  been 
repeated  in  various  forms  in  a  large  number  of 
publications.  A  version  of  it  may  be  found  in 
the  American  Review  of  Beviews  of  only  a 
few  years  ago,  in  an  article  entitled  "  How  the 
Bible  Came  Down  to  Us,"  and  one  meets  with 
it  in  the  most  unexpected  places.  Opening 
the  recent  work  of  Professor  Haeckel,  of  Ber- 
lin, the  corypheus  of  the  host  of  atheistic  evo- 


6  New  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

lutionists  who  have  made  so  much  unmelodious 
noise  in  the  world — and  about  the  world — for 
the  last  half  century  and  more,  I  was  surprised 
to  find  the  great  scientist  repeating  the  absurd 
story  in  the  pages  of  his  Riddle  of  the  Uni- 
verse. This  is  his  version  of  it  (p.  311 ) :  "As 
to  the  four  canonical  gospels,  we  now  know 
that  they  were  selected  from  a  host  of  contra- 
dictory and  forged  manuscripts  of  the  first 
three  centuries  by  the  three  hundred  and 
eighteen  bishops  who  assembled  at  the  council 
of  Mcsea  in  327  [sic].  The  entire  list  of  gos- 
pels numbered  forty,  and  the  canonical  list 
contains  four.  As  the  contending  and  mu- 
tually abusive  bishops  could  not  agree  about 
the  choice,  they  determined  to  leave  the  selec- 
tion to  a  miracle.  They  put  all  the  books  (ac- 
cording to  the  Synodicon  of  Pappus),  together 
underneath  the  altar,  and  prayed  that  the  un- 
canonical  books,  of  human  origin,  might  re- 
main there,  and  the  genuine  inspired  books 
might  be  miraculously  placed  on  the  table  of 
the  Lord.  And  that,  says  tradition,  occurred  ! 
The  three  synoptic  Gospels,  Matthew,  Mark 
and  Luke — all  written  after  them,  and  not  by 
them,  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  century, 
and  the  very  different  Fourth  Gospel  (ostensibly 
"  after  "  John,  written  about  the  middle  of  the 


Fahe  Lights   That  Lead  Astray  7 

second  century)  leaped  upon  the  table  and  were 
thenceforth  recognized  as  the  inspired  (with 
their  thousand  mutual  contradictions)  founda- 
tions of  Christian  doctrine."  He  then  goes  on 
with  sarcastic  and  violent  raillery  at  Christians 
who  could  be  so  senseless  as  to  believe  in  the 
uncouth  miracle. 

Now  if  before  printing  this  nonsense, 
Haeckel  had  been  prudent  enough  to  go  to 
some  one  well-informed  about  such  matters— 
to  Prof.  Adolf  Harnack,  in  the  theological 
department  of  the  great  Berlin  University,  for 
instance — and  tell  him  of  it,  he  would  probably 
have  said,  had  politeness  allowed,  something 
like  this : — 

''  My  venerable  friend,  it  would  be  wisest 
for  us  to  confine  ourselves  to  our  own  depart- 
ments of  investigation,  as  it  is  best  for  the 
shoemaker  to  stick  to  his  last.  Had  I  gone  to 
you  and  told  you  that  through  scientific  dis- 
coveries in  this  universe,  of  which  you  seem 
to  have  solved  the  riddle,  'we  now  know'  that 
the  moon  is  made  of  green  cheese,  and  must, 
therefore,  of  course,  be  inhabited,  I  should 
not  have  made  myself  more  ridiculous  than 
you  would  make  yourself  by  publishing  this. 
For,  in  the  first  place^  there  is  no  evidence 
that  the  Council  of  Nice  did  anything  at  all  in 


8  Neio  Light  on  the  Neiv   Testament 

the  way  of  settling  the  Canon  of  Scripture. 
The  story  you  repeat  is  a  baseless  mediaeval 
legend.  ^  In  the  second  place,  abundant 
quotations  in  Irenagus  from  the  four  gospels 
as  well  as  distinct  statements  on  the  subject, 
show  that  the  four  gospels  were  as  fully 
accepted  in  the  year  two  hundred,  as  the  only 
inspired  accounts  of  our  Saviour's  life  on 
earth,  as  they  are  now  ;  while  Justin  Martyr 
shows  by  his  quotations  from  these  "  Memoirs 
of  the  Ai^ostles  "  as  he  calls  them,  that  the 
case  was  just  the  same  more  than  fifty  years 
earlier.  Besides  this,  we  now  have,  by  recent 
discovery,  the  four  gospels  wrought  into  a 
continuous  account  in  Tatian's  Diatessaron 
{i.  ^.,  through  four),  the  very  name  of  which 
shows   that  there  were  but  four  gospels  recog- 

^  "There  is  not  the  slightest  evidence  that  the  Council  of 
Nice  had  anything  whatever  to  do  with  settling  the  Canon 
of  the  New  Testament.  It  was  not  called  for  any  such  pur- 
pose ;  nothing  relating  to  the  subject  appears  in  the  canons 
or  acts  of  the  council  ;  no  writer  of  the  fourth,  or  liith,  or 
sixth,  or  seventh,  or  eighth  century  has  even  hinted  that  the 
matter  came  before  tlie  council  in  any  way." — Dr.  Ezra 
Abbot. 

The  story  was  published  ])y  John  Pappus,  of  Strasburg,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  17th  century,  from  an  anonymous 
manuscript  which  mentioned  events  occurring  in  A.  D,  869, 
"500  years  after  the  members  of  the  Nicene  council  were 
dead  and  buried,"  as  one  has  well  said,  and  is  a  companion 
piece  of  many  such  monkish  stories  of  uncouth  miracles.  It 
may  be  found  republished  in  Fabricius'  Bibliothcca  Grseca, 
Vol.  XI.,  p.  198. 


False  Lights   2' hat  Lead  Astray  9 

nized,  fifty  years  after  the  death  of  the  Apostle 
John  ;  and  by  necessary  implication,  there  had 
been  no  others  thus  recognized  by  the  Chris- 
tian Church.  Besides  all  this,  we  now  have 
the  four  gospels  in  Syriac,  complete,  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  pages  lost  out  of  the  manu- 
script, earlier  still  than  this  Z>iatessaro?i,  as  is 
thought,  hecsLUsethe  Diatessaron  contains  many 
of  its  peculiar  readings.  It  would  be  best, 
dear  friend,  for  you  to  go  on  solving  universe 
riddles  and  leave  these  matters  to  persons  who 
have  some  information  about  early  Chris- 
tianity." 

Professor  Ilaeckel's  mistake  is  due  to  his 
ignorance  of  the  fact  that  the  positions  of  the 
famous  Tubingen  School,^  so  boldly  maintained 
by  unbelieving  scholars  till  twenty-five  years 
ago,  have  been  made  absolutely  untenable  by 
recent  discoveries ;  and  now,  no  one  who  is  in- 
formed on  the  subject  can  believe  either  in  the 
late  origin  of  any  of  the  four  gospels,  or  in  the 
universal  acceptance,  at  any  time,  of  any  of 
the  many  heretical  gospels  so-called.  The 
Gosj?el  of  Peter  ^,  so-called,  fragments  of  which 

^  Haeckel,  while  niodif ying  Baur's  dates,  emphasizes  his 
conclusions  as  to  the  spuriousness  of  the  gospels 

2  8ee  Ante-Nicene  Fathers.  IX.  Vol.,  pp.  3-31.  Harnack 
assigns  it  to  the  first  quarter  of  the  second  century.  Other 
scholars  place  it  later. 


10  New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

were  discovered  a  few  years  ago  at  Akhmim, 
in  Egypt,  seems  to  be  a  Docetic  document,  de- 
pendent on,  and  in  its  main  structure,  patterned 
after,  our  gospels.  The  Apocryphal  Gospel 
according  to  the  Hebrews^  which,  possibly, 
originated  still  earlier  than  that  of  Peter,^  was 
used  by  the  heretical  sects  of  the  Ebionites,  and 
J^azarenes  and  shows  plainly,  in  the  twenty- 
three  quotations  from  it  which  are  extant,  de- 
pendence on  all  four  of  our  gospels.^  So  it 
comes  about  that  these,  the  two  oldest,  ap- 
parently, of  all  the  false  gospels  that  are 
known,  when  closely  examined,  become  wit- 
nesses for  the  four  gospels  instead  of  competi- 
tors with  them.^ 


^  Dr.  Theodor  Zahn  says,  ( Einleitimg,  I.  p.  8).  "The  so- 
called  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebretvs  was  an  Aramaic  book 
the  existence  of  which  is  attested  from  the  middle  of  the 
second  century,"  and  on  p.  261.  "  The  Nazarenes  who  kept 
true  to  their  mother  speech,  had  from  A.  D.  150  at  the  latest, 
their  gospel  according  to  tlie  Hebrews. ' '  In  his  History  of 
the  Canon,  II.  p.  722,  after  summing  up  the  evidence  and 
speaking  of  the  period  about  A.  D.  130-150,  he  says,  "To 
this  time  the  origin  of  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews 
belongs. ' '  For  these  references  I  am  indebted  to  the  kind- 
ness of  Dr.  B.  B.  Warfield. 

2  See  Dr.  B.  Weiss'  Manual  of  Introd,  to  N.  T.,  Vol.  II. 
^  45,  5. 

^  It  is  hardly  necessary  even  to  mention  the  little  known 
Gospel  ace.  to  the  Egyptians,  a  Gnostic  document,  but  one  by 
no  means  generally  accepted  by  the  Gnostics  themselves, 
and  distinctly  repudiated  by  Clem,  of  Alexandria,  who 
quotes  it. 


False  Lights   That  Lead  Astray  11 

It  is  instructive  to  look  back  over  the  course 
through  which  the  Tubingen  School  has  passed 
to  its  downfall,  leaving  so  much  spiritual  wreck 
and  ruin  behind  it  in  the  overturning  of  the 
faith  of  many,  during  the  past  half  century. 
The  founder  of  this  school  of  theological 
speculation  was  Ferdinand  Christian  Baur. 
Baur  was  withdrawn  from  the  orthodox  posi- 
tion, which  his  earliest  productions  indicate 
that  he  held,  by  the  powerful  influence  of 
Schleiermacher,  and  then  by  that  of  Strauss,  his 
own  pupil,  whose  "  Life  of  Jesus  "  seems  to 
have  been  one  of  the  means  by  which  poor 
George  Eliot  was  robbed  of  her  faith.  But 
the  chief  influence  which  drew  him  aside  was 
Hegel's  philosophy.  We  need  not  examine  at 
length  the  course  of  his  reasoning.  Little 
more  is  necessary  than  the  mention  of  his 
conclusions  about  the  time  when  the  different 
books  of  the  N"ew  Testament  were  written. 
He  held  that  Paul  wrote  the  four  epistles,  to 
the  Romans,  Corinthians  and  Galatians,  and 
that  John,  the  beloved  disciple,  wrote  the 
Apocalypse  ;  but  that  the  other  books  of  the 
New  Testament  are  spurious  productions,  and 
especially  that  the  four  gospels  containing  the 
facts  which  are  the  basis  of  Christianity  were 
written    long    after    their    reputed    authors, 


12  New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

Matthew,  Mark,  Luke  and  John,  were  dead; 
and  that  they,  therefore,  could  not  have  been 
written  by  them.  This  conclusion  was 
founded,  not  upon  facts,  but  upon  a  priori 
theories.  Taking  the  opposite  course  from 
that  of  the  Baconian  method  of  deducing  gen- 
eral conclusions  from  an  induction  of  particular 
facts,  he  assumed  certain  general  conclusions  as 
true,  and  then  proceeded  to  gather  and  arrange 
facts  in  the  endeavor  to  sustain  these  con- 
clusions. Assuming  the  impossibility  of  mira- 
cles, and  of  the  supernatural  in  all  its  phases, 
and  then  adopting  the  Hegelian  theory  of  the 
progress  of  every  set  of  opinions,  as  going 
through  the  three  stages  of  affirmation,  con- 
tradiction and  reconciliation  (thesis,  anti-thesis, 
and  synthesis),  he  endeavored  to  account  for 
the  origin  of  the  Christian  Scriptures  by 
supposing  that  they  developed  in  a  merely 
natural  way  by  this  rule. 

The  process,  however,  is  of  small  importance. 
What  we  are  concerned  with  is  his  conclusions 
as  to  the  dates  of  these  books,  and  especially  of 
the  four  gospels.  Placing  these  four  epistles 
of  Paul  in  this  period  of  "  affirmation,"  he  pro- 
nounced them  genuine  and  their  traditional 
dates  substantially  correct.  But,  according  to 
his    theory,   the    so-called    Synoptic  Gospels, 


False  Lights   That  Lead  Astray  13 

Matthew,  Mark  and  Luke,  must  have  origi- 
nated in  the  second  period — that  of  discussion 
and  difference.  So  he  concluded  that  while 
Matthew  may  have  been  written  about  a.  d. 
130,  in  the  interest  of  the  Judaizing  party,  and 
Luke  about  150  in  advocacy  of  universality, 
Mark  could  not  have  originated  earlier  than 
the  decade  from  150  to  160,  and  that  John 
must  have  been  written  in  the  period  of  "  syn- 
thesis "  or  reconciliation  of  opposing  parties, 
in  the  decade  extending  from  a.  d.  160  to  170. 

III.    "Supernatural  Eeligion  " 

Now,  it  would  not  have  been  necessary  to 
detain  the  reader  with  the  mention  of  these 
opinions  of  Baur  if  they  had  been  held  by 
him  alone  ;  but  this  was  by  no  means  the 
case.  His  views  spread  rapidly  among  Ger- 
man scholars,  and  the  very  influential  Tubin- 
gen School  was  the  result.  Baur  died  in  1860, 
and  his  influence  has  long  since  waned  in  Ger- 
many, as  its  radical  unsoundness  has  been 
demonstrated,  not  only  by  reasoning,  but  by 
unexpected  events.  But,  as  its  sun  was  going 
down  in  Germany,  it  was  rising  on  England. 
About  twenty-five  years  ago  there  appeared  in 
England  a  book  dealing  with  these  questions 


14  New  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

in  an  apparently  learned  way  under  the  title 
of  Super )iaticral  Heligioii. 

The  aim  of  the  book  was  to  destroy  belief 
in  the  supernatural,  and  especially  to  discredit 
the  four  gospels.  It  was  a  popular  presenta- 
tion in  English  of  the  Tubingen  theories  of 
Baur  and  his  school.  The  author  withheld  his 
name  and  seems  never  to  have  revealed  it, 
though  a  prominent  English  review  writer  has 
been  sus])ected  of  the  authorship.^  The  book 
was  ushered  in  with  a  chorus  of  praise  from 
reviews,  extolling  its  great  learning  and  fair- 
ness in  discussion.  It  was  at  a  time  when  the 
Darwinian  theories  were  most  zealously  prop- 
agated, and  a  large  proportion  of  the  most 
cultivated  Englishmen  were  under  the  spell  of 
the  skepticism  which  accompanied  the  recep- 
tion of  these  theories.  The  result  was  that 
the  book  had  an  enormous  sale,  passing  rapidly 
from  one  edition  to  another,  and  influenced  a 
very  large  number  of  writers  and  readers  in 
such  a  way  as  to  lead  them,  at  least,  to  ques- 
tion the  divine  origin  of  the  Christian  religion 
and  the  sacred  character  of  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures.    One  thing  which,  without  doubt,  added 


'  It  is  now  well  known  that  Mr.  Walter  R.  Cassells  is  the 
anthor  of  this  book,  a  new  edition  of  which  has  just  ap- 
peared. 


False  Lights   That  Lead  Astray  15 

greatly  to  the  popularity  of  this  book  with  its 
skeptical  readers  was  the  fact  that  it,  some- 
how, came  to  be  understood  that  the  anony- 
mous author  was  one  of  the  most  eminent 
prelates  of  the  Church  of  England;  a  man 
noted  for  his  profound  and  accurate  scholar- 
ship and  unswerving  faithfulness  to  his  sacred 
duties  during  a  long  life  of  usefulness. 
Whether  this  fiction  was  given  out  by  the  un- 
known author  or  by  some  literary  Mephistophe- 
les  among  his  admirers  will  probably  never 
be  known.  But  the  result  may,  perhaps,  be 
better  imagined  than  described.  This  more 
than  "  dash  of  heresy  "  in  the  supposed  pro- 
duction of  a  bishop  long  venerated  for  his 
learning  and  piety,  gave  the  dish  a  piquancy 
whose  charm  was  irresistible  to  the  palate  of 
the  skeptical  public,  ready  at  all  times,  and 
more  than  ready  at  that  time,  of  the  beginning 
of  the  Darwinian  ascendancy,  to  break  away 
from  all  the  old  restraints  of  religion.  The 
fact  that  a  man  of  such  character,  standing 
and  ability,  who  had  so  long  been  one  of  the 
Church's  guides  and  defenders,  had  now,  as  it 
seemed,  joined  the  sappers  and  miners  who 
were  trying  to  destroy  her  foundations,  and 
that  this  whilom  eminent  defender,  had,  in 
this   work,   set   off    a  blast   which    made   the 


16  New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

whole  edifice  tremble,  filled  the  free-thinking 
literati  with  an  excitement  from  whose  intoxi- 
cation they  have  hardly  yet  recovered.  The 
sadly  wronged  prelate  did  indeed  most  em- 
phatically disclaim  the  authorship,  but  this 
seemed  of  no  avail.  The  book  is  said  to  have 
passed  through  six  editions  in  as  many  months. 
This  is  probably  an  exaggeration  ;  but  the  fact 
that  the  assertion  is  made  is  an  indication  that 
the  circulation  of  the  book  must  have  been 
rapid  beyond  precedent  in  the  case  of  a  work 
devoted  to  learned  argument  on  such  a  subject. 
The  book  which  was  lauded  by  four  reviews 
for  its  fairness  and  directness  in  argument  was 
very  soon  found,  on  examination  by  competent 
scholars,  to  conceal,  under  the  guise  of  vaunted 
fairness,  almost  every  kind  of  indirection  and 
unfair  dealing.  Dr.  Lightfoot  (afterwards 
Bishop  of  Durham)  convicted  the  author  of  so 
misrepresenting  and  w^arping  the  facts  with 
which  he  dealt  as  to  show  an  unmistakably 
dishonest  intention  to  "  make  the  worse  the 
better  reason  seem."  The  utter  misrepresenta- 
tion of  the  meaning  of  authorities  quoted, 
whether  made  from  ignorance  or  design,  indi- 
cated a  prejudice  against  the  Christian  religion 
which  made  the  author  blind  to  whatever  was 
evidential  of  its  truth  and  lynx-eyed    to  the 


False  Lights   'That  Lead  Astray  17 

minutest  fact  that  could  be  construed  as  un- 
favorable to  it.  Dr.  Sanday,  of  Oxford, 
showed  so  conclusively  the  fallaciousness  of 
the  writer's  argument  designed  to  prove  that 
the  Gospel  of  Luke  was  derived  from  the 
mutilated  gospel  which  Marcion  used  in  prop- 
agating his  heresy,  that  he  was  forced  to  ac- 
knowledge that  the  Gospel  of  Luke  was  the 
original  which,  on  the  other  hand,  Marcion 
trimmed  and  treated  to  make  it  appear  to  sup- 
port his  heresy. 

Dr.  Lightfoot,  in  a  remarkable  set  of  articles 
in  the  Contemporary  Review,  proved  that  the 
supposedly  learned  and  fair  author  of  Super- 
natural Religion,  either  from  the  lack  of  even 
a  schoolboy  knowledge  of  Greek,  or  from  de- 
sign, mistranslated  passage  after  passage,  from 
L-en^us  especially,  so  as  to  make  it  appear 
that  the  author  intended  to  teach  exactly  the 
reverse  of  that  which,  on  a  proper  translation 
and  construction  of  his  words,  was  shown  to 
be  his  real  meaning. 


II. 

NEW  LIGHT  ON  A  MARTYR's  TESTIMONY 

I.    Tatian's  Diatessaron 

The  main  position  around  which  this  great 
battle  raged  was  The  Diatessaron  of  Tatian. 

The  author  of  Supernatural  Religion  ven- 
tured to  assert  that  "  No  one  seems  to  hav^e 
seen  Tatian's  Harmony^  probably  for  the  rea- 
son that  there  was  no  such  w^ork."  Could  he 
have  foreknown  the  events  of  the  near  future, 
he  would  have  withheld  this  sarcasm. 

During  the  very  next  year,  1876,  there  ap- 
peared a  translation  of  Ephrasra's  Comm en- 
tar}^  on  Tatian's  Diatessaron,  made  at  the 
request  of  the  Mechitarist  Fathers  of  San 
Lazzaro,  Venice,  by  Dr.  Georgius  Moesinger,  of 
the  University  of  Salzburg.^  The  author  of 
Supernatural  Eeligion,  in  spite  of  this,  which 
was  a  very  clear  proof  of  the  existence  of 
Tatian's  Harmony,  ^2ad  in  desperation:  "It 
is  obvious  that  there  is  no  evidence  of  any 

'  This  translation  was  based  on  an  earlier  Latin  version  of 
the  Mechitarist  monk,  Aucher. 
18 


Neic  Light  on  a  3fartijr's   Testimony         19 

value  connecting  Tatian's  gospel  with  those  of 
our  canon." 

This  he  did  in  1879,  and  he  most  certainly 
would  not  have  said  it  if  he  could  have  fore- 
seen what  was  to  occur  two  years  later.  In 
1881  Professor  Zahn,  of  Erlangen,  published  a 
reconstruction  of  the  Diatessaron  of  Tatian 
from  Moesinger's  translation  of  the  commen- 
tary on  it,  and  from  the  Homilies  of  Ajyhraates 
which  were,  also,  based  upon  it.  This  made  it 
clear  that  the  Diatessaron  was  not  another  of 
the  Apocryphal  gospels,  nor  a  reproduction  of 
the  Gospel  according  to  the  Ilehrews^  as  had 
been  conjectured,  but  was  a  harmony  made  up 
of  our  four  gospels. 

This  work  of  Zahn  drew  attention  to  an 
Arabic  manuscript  marked  No.  XIY,  in  the 
Vatican  library,  which  purported  to  contain  a 
translation  of  the  Diatessaron  itself. 

Ciasca,  a  "  lector  "  of  the  library,  was  urged 
to  translate  this  manuscript  and  publish  it,  but 
was  delayed  by  other  duties  in  doing  so,  and 
this  providential  delay  was  overruled,  like 
many  another,  for  the  best  result  in  the  end. 
There  was  in  the  library  one  day  an  ecclesi- 
astic, the  Visitor  Apostolic  of  the  Catholic 
Copts  in  Egypt.  He  was  invited  to  examine 
the    manuscript,   and    as    a   result,  informed 


20  New  Light  on  the  Nciv   Testament 

Ciasca  that  he  knew  of  another  like  it  in 
Egypt,  and  that  he  would  have  it  sent  to  hiui. 
In  due  time  this  was  done,  and  thus  Ciasca 
had  two  Arabic  copies  from  which  to  make  his 
translation.  He  completed  and  published  his 
translation  in  1888,  in  time  to  present  it  to  the 
Pope  on  the  occasion  of  his  jubilee  in  that 
year.  Now  we  have  it  in  English  in  a  transla- 
tion with  notes  by  the  Eev.  Hope  W.  Hogg, 
B.  D.,  and  his  wife,  who  gave  him  much  assist- 
ance in  the  undertaking,  as  well  as  an  earlier 
by  B.  Haralyn  Hill,  B.  D.,  called  The  Earliest 
Life  of  Christ. 

Two  facts  make  it  of  great  importance  as  a 
witness  for  the  four  gospels.  One  is  that  it 
contains  the  whole  account  given  of  our  Sav- 
iour's life  and  teachings  in  the  gospels,  in  the 
very  words  of  the  gospels,  woven  together  so 
as  to  make  a  continuous  narrative,  and  is 
therefore  appropriately  named  the  Diatessaron^ 
i.  e.^  through  four. 

The  second  fact  is  that  there  is  no  trace  of 
any  Apocryphal  gospel  in  it,  showing  that  the 
only  gospels  recognized  by  the  Christians  of 
that  early  day,  fifty  or  sixty  years  after  the 
death  of  the  last  of  the  apostles,  were  those 
of  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John.  The 
preparation  of  a  life  of  our  Saviour  out  of 


New  Light  on  a  Martyr^s    Testimony         21 

these  gospels,  and  these  alone,  without  a  word 
of  his  own  (as  Ebed  Jesu  puts  it,  "  and  of  his 
own  he  did  not  add  a  single  saying  ")  indicates 
the  universal  acceptance  of  these  gospels  long 
before,  as  well  as  the  reverential  awe  enter- 
tained of  them  as  "  The  memoirs  of  the  apos- 
tles," as  Tatian's  teacher,  Justin  Martyr,  called 
them.  This  is  too  evident  to  need  amplifica- 
tion or  argument. 

The  Biatessaron,  according  to  the  careful 
estimate  made  by  Prof.  G.  F.  Moore,  con- 
tains fifty  per  cent  of  Mark,  sixty-six  per 
cent  of  Luke,  76.5  per  cent  of  Matthew  and 
ninety-six  per  cent  of  John.  Before  the  dis- 
covery of  the  Diatessaron^  the  Kev.  W.  M. 
Taylor,  D.  D.,  of  New  York,  composed  a  har- 
mony of  the  same  character,  which  he  named 
The  Life  of  Our  Lord  in  the  Words  of  the 
Four  Evangelists^  a  book  which  was  constantly 
used  for  daily  reading  by  one  whose  memory 
is  more  precious  to  the  writer  than  that  of  any 
other  human  being ;  and  it  would  be  as  irra- 
tional to  deny  that  Dr.  Taylor  ^  had  our  four 
gospels  before  him  when  he  arranged  that 
harmony,  as  to  say  that  Tatian  did  not  have 
them  when  he  wove  them  together  to  make 
his.     Duplicate  expressions  and  narratives  in 

'  Dr.  Taylor  omits  the  genealogies,  Just  as  Tatian  does. 


22  New  Light  on  the  Neiv  Testament 

the  different  gospels  were,  of  course,  omitted 
by  both  in  a  work  of  such  a  character. 

The  composition  of  the  Diatessaron  implies 
that  the  four  gospels  were  the  only  gospels  of 
the  Christians  for  a  long  time  before  it  came 
into  existence,  in  spite  of  the  efforts  of  Basil- 
ides,  Marcion,  and  other  heretics  to  corrupt  or 
supplant  them. 

But  an  interesting  question  is,  are  there 
traces  of  the  existence  of  these  gospels  during 
the  period  which  lies  between  the  death  of 
John  and  the  composition  of  the  Diatessaron  f 
This  period,  as  every  student  of  church  history 
is  aware,  lies  in  great  obscurity.  Whether 
from  the  destruction  of  libraries,  the  preva- 
lence of  persecution  or  whatever  cause,  the 
distinct  Christian  memorials  of  that  time  are 
few.  Indeed  this  may  be  said  of  the  time 
from  the  close  of  The  Acts  of  the  Apostles  to 
the  death  of  the  Apostle  John,  also.  Yet 
there  are  lights  here  and  there  in  this  dark 
morass  where  the  paths  are  so  indistinct  and 
our  footing  so  uncertain.  I  need  not  speak  of 
the  clear  evidence  of  the  existence  of  the  four 
gospels  and  other  books  of  the  New  Testament 
furnished  by  the  fragments  of  the  writings  of 
apostolic  fathers  which  have  been  preserved  to 
our  time.     For   these  testimonies   the  reader 


New  Light  on  a  Martyr''s   Testimony         23 

will  turn  to  such  text-books  on  Christian  evi- 
dences as  that  of  Paley,  or  to  the  much  fuller 
and  fresher  presentation  of  them  in  the  almost 
phenomenal  production  of  the  great  German 
scholar,  Dr.  Bernhardt  Weiss,  Manual  of  In- 
troduction to  the  New  Testament :  ^  or  to  the 
still  better  and  sounder  presentation  in  Char- 
teris's  Canonicity. 

But  in  addition  to  the  references  to  these 
writings  in  the  scanty  Christian  literature 
which  has  survived  from,  the  apostolic  age  to 
our  own,  we  have  the  account  of  a  thoroughly 
reliable  writer,  who  lived  from  about  twenty 
years  after  the  death  of  the  Apostle  John  to 
the  opening  of  the  third  century,  of  oral  com- 
munications which  he  had  received  from  one 
who  was  a  disciple  of  John  himself,  and  Avas 
accustomed  to  talk  with  others  who  had  seen 
the  Lord ;  and  he  tells  us  that  these  communi- 
cations by  word  of  mouth  agreed  with  the 
accounts  of  Christ  given  in  the  gospels.  This 
testimony  of  Iren^eus  is  contained  in  a  letter 
to  a  friend  of  his  youth,  who  with  him  had 
been  a  hearer  of  Polycarp,  the  younger  con- 
temporary of  the  Apostle  John,  but  who  seems 

'  As  remarkable,  however,  for  the  lameness  and  impotency 
of  some  of  its  conclusions  as  it'  is  for  its  evidence  of  scholar- 
ship and  diligent  research. 


24  New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

to  have  fallen  away  from  the  shnplicity  of  the 
gospel  under  the  influence  of  political  ambi- 
tions and  heathen  philosophy.  Writing  to 
this  former  companion,  Florinus,  Irenaeus 
says : — 

"I  distinctly  remember  the  incidents  of  that 
time  better  than  events  of  recent  occurrence ; 
for,  the  lessons  received  in  childhood,  growing 
with  the  soul,  become  identified  with  it ;  so 
that  I  can  describe  the  very  place  in  which 
the  blessed  Polycarp  used  to  sit  when  he  dis- 
coursed, and  his  goings  out  and  his  comings 
in,  and  his  manner  of  life,  and  his  personal  ap- 
pearance, and  the  discourses  which  he  held 
before  the  people,  and  how  he  would  describe 
his  intercourse  with  John,  and  with  the  rest 
who  had  seen  the  Lord,  and  how  he  loould  re- 
late their  words.  And  whatsoever  things  he 
had  heard  from  them  about  the  Lord,  and 
about  his  miracles,  and  about  his  teaching, 
Polycarp,  as  having  received  them  from  eye- 
witnesses of  the  life  of  the  word,  would 
relate  altogether  in  accordance  with  the  Scrij)- 
tures^ 

Of  this,  Dr.  Wace  {The  Authenticity  of  the 
Four  Gospels)  remarks  : — 

"In  order  to  appreciate  what  this  involves, 
one  must  ask  what  Irenaeus  meant  by  '  The 


New  Light  on  a  Blartyr^s   Teslimony         25 

Scriptures.'  Of  course,  the  expression  must 
refer  to  those  portions  of  the  Scriptures  which 
narrate  the  life  of  our  Lord,  and  Irenaeus  has 
stated,  in  a  memorable  passage,  what  these 
records  were.  In  the  third  book  of  his  great 
work  on  The  Befutation  and  Overthroio  of 
Knowledge  Falsely  so  Called^  he  relates  briefly, 
says  Bishop  Lightfoot :  *  The  circumstances 
under  which  the  four  gospels  were  written. 
.  .  .  He  assumes  throughout,  not  only 
that  our  four  canonical  gospels  alone  were 
acknowledged  in  the  church  in  his  own  time, 
but  that  this  had  been  so  from  the  beginning.'  " 
Irengeus,  who  quotes  our  four  gospels  500 
times  in  those  of  his  writings  which  have  been 
preserved,  and  the  Gospel  of  John  100  times, 
was  a  contemporary,  for  perhaps  thirty-five 
years,  of  Polycarp,  whose  memory  as  his 
teacher  he  ever  held  in  most  affectionate  rev- 
erence. Polycarp  was  the  contemporary^  of 
the  Apostle  John  for  thirty  years  at  the  least. 
Irenaeus  regarded  the  four  gospels  just  as  the 
orthodox  Christian  of  our  day  does.  Now, 
Iren^us  has  much  to  say  of  Justin  and  his 
child  in  the  gospel,  Tatian.  They  lived  for 
thirty  years  in  one  case,  and  perhaps  forty  in 
the  other  as  his  contemporaries.  Tatian  and 
Justin  were  contemporaries  of  Polycarp  for  the 


26  New  Light  on  the  Keiv   Testament 

first  forty  or  forty -five  years  of  their  liv^es.^  The 
Diatessaron  of  Tatian  frees  the  testimony  of 
Justin  Martyr  of  all  possible  doubt,  and  to 
that  testimony  our  attention  will  now  be 
directed.  The  Diatessaron  has  been  well- 
named  "the  key  to  Justin." 

II.    Justin,  the  Apologist  and  Martyr 

Somewhere  about  the  time  Avhen  the  Apos- 
tle John  died  at  Ephesus,  there  was  born  at 
the  village  of  Sychar,  by  Jacob's  well,  where 
our  Saviour  told  the  Samaritan  woman  of  the 
water  of  life,  a  child  who  was  to  be  known 
through  all  coming  ages  as  a  martyr  for  his 
cause.  But,  Justin  Martyr,  though  a  native  of 
Sychar,  was  not  of  Samaritan  blood.  Had  we 
no  information  to  the  contrary,  we  should  be 
likely  to  think  that  he  was  probably  a  de- 
scendant of  some  one  of  those  with  whom  our 
Lord  spent  two  days  on  his  journey  northward 

^  "Polycarp  was  eighty-six  years  old  at  the  time  of  his 
death  (from  his  words  it  would  seem  that  he  had  been 
eighty-six  years  a  Christian)  and  Irenseus  speaks  of  him  as  a 
disciple  of  John,  and  as  appointed  Bishop  of  Smyrna  by 
apostles,  and  again  speaks  of  '  successors  of  Polycarp  at  the 
present  time,'  that  is,  from  A.  D.  177  to  A.  D.  190.  .  .  . 
Living  from  A.  D.  70  to  155,  his  life  and  work  link  together 
St.  John  and  Irenseus,  and  they  become  an  argument  for  the 
authenticity  of  the  Fourth  Gospel,  the  force  of  which  it 
is  impossible  to  deny." — Waikins'  Bampton  Lectures,  pp. 
391,  2. 


New  Light  on  a  Martyr  s   Tcatimony         27 

— two  days  of  surpassing  interest  tliey  must 
have  been — when,  after  hearing  his  wonderful 
words,  they  said  to  the  woman  of  Samaria ; 
"Now  we  believe,  not  because  of  thy  saying 
for  we  have  heard  him  ourselves,  and  know 
that  this  is  indeed  the  Christ."  But  it  is  evi- 
dent from  all  that  he  says  that  he  was  not  of 
Samaritan  or  of  Jewish  blood,  and  that  he  was 
reared  in  the  study  of  philosophy  and  Greek  lit- 
erature, and  without  any  knowledge  of  the  Old 
Testament.  Philosophy  was  his  pursuit  from 
his  youth,  and  he  early  won  the  right  to  wear  the 
philosopher's  cloak.  He  seems  to  have  been 
in  the  habit  of  retiring  to  some  solitude  to  do 
what  almost  every  great  thinker  has  done — 
meditate,  and  commune  with  nature.  It  was 
such  an  excursion  that  was  made,  in  God's 
providence,  the  occasion  of  his  coming  to  the 
knowledge  of  the  truth.  The  place  was  prob- 
ably in  the  vicinity  of  Ephesus,  as  he  seems  to 
have  studied  there ;  but  this  is  immaterial. 
Let  us  hear  him  tell  of  it :  "  And  while  I  was 
thus  disposed,  when  I  wished  at  one  period  to 
be  filled  with  great  quietness,  and  to  shun  the 
path  of  men,  I  used  to  go  into  a  certain  field 
not  far  from  the  sea,  and  when  I  was  near  that 
spot  one  day,  which  having  reached,  I  proposed 
to  be  by  myself,  a  certain  old  man,  by   no 


28  New   Light  on  the  Neio   Testament 

means  contemptible  in  appearance,  exhibiting 
meek  and  venerable  manners,  followed  me  at 
a  little  distance." 

After  salutations,  the  venerable  stranger 
told  Justin  that  he  had  come  to  this  place  to 
look  for  friends  who  were  absent  and  who 
might  be  returning.  As  it  was  in  view  of  the 
sea,  he  was  probably  looking  for  the  vessel  by 
which  they  were  expected. 

Justin  having  told  him  that  he  delighted  in 
solitary  walks  to  meditate  on  the  great  ques- 
tions of  philosophy,  the  stranger  began  to  dis- 
course of  the  vanity  of  mere  human  specula- 
tions about  the  great  subject  of  religion  (for 
this  was  the  field  of  philosophy  in  which  Jus- 
tin w^as  most  interested),  and  then  dwelt  on 
the  need  of  a  divine  revelation  such  as  existed 
in  The  Prophets,  or  Old  Testament  Scriptures, 
and  of  the  enlightenment  of  the  Holy  Spirit, 
to  give  us  a  satisfactory  and  saving  view  of 
the  truth  in  these  great  matters.  Then,  Jus- 
tin tells  us : — 

"  When  he  had  spoken  these  and  many  other 
things,  he  w^ent  away,  bidding  me  attend  to 
them,  and  I  have  not  seen  him  since ;  but 
straightway  a  flame  was  kindled  in  my  soul, 
and  a  love  of  the  prophets  and  of  those  men 
who  are  the  friends  of  Christ  possessed  me, 


Neio  Light  on  a  ]\[artyr''s   Testimony        29 

and  whilst  revolving  his  words  in  my  mind,  I 
found  this  philosophy  alone  to  be  safe  and 
profitable."     (Dialogue  Ch.  8.)  ^ 

Thus  we  see  how  it  was  that  Justin  Martyr, 
though  he  became  a  Christian,  never  ceased  to 
wear  his  philosopher's  cloak.  He  found  Chris- 
tianity to  be  the  truest  and  highest  of  all 
philosophy,  and  did  not  cease  to  be  a  philos- 
opher by  becoming  a  Christian.^  He  seems 
to  have  been  one  of  the  most  fearless  and 
straightforward  of  all  the  witnesses  for  Christ 
in  that  brave  age.  Anyone  who  will  read  his 
two  defenses  of  Christianity  will  see  and  feel 
this  as  he  cannot  otherwise  do. 

Some  years  later,  probably  in  163,  there  was 
a  thrilling  scene  in  the  court  of  the  Roman 
prefect,  Rusticus.  The  noble  life  was  crowned 
with  the  noblest  of  deaths,  that  of  a  martyr 
for  Christ. 


'  Justin  seems  to  have  been  influenced,  too,  as  Tve  know 
Calvin  was,  by  the  conduct  of  those  whom  he  observed  under 
persecution.  He  tells  us:  '' Wliile  I  still  found  delight  in 
the  doctrines  of  Plato,  and  heard  the  Christians  calumniated, 
but  yet  saw  them  fearless  toward  death,  and  all  that  men 
account  fearful,  I  learned  that  it  was  impossible  that  they 
should  live  in  sin  and  lust." 

^  "The  torch  of  Aristotle  and  Plato  faded  when  he  became 
familiar  with  the  light  of  Christ." — Watkins'  Bampion 
Lectures. 

Hart  and  Yolkmar  date  the  first  Apology  A.  D.  145-148  ; 
Casparl  and  Kruger  earlier.  —  Watkins^  Bampton  Lectures. 


30  Neio  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

Rusticus,  the  prefect  of  Rome,  before  whom 
Justin  and  other  Christians  were  arraigned, 
demanded  that  they  should  deny  their  faith  and 
salute  the  image  of  the  emperor  as  divine.  "  Un- 
less," said  he,  "  ye  obey,  ye  shall  be  mercilessly 
punished."  Justin  said,  "  Through  prayer  we 
can  be  saved  on  account  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  even  when  we  have  been  punished,  be- 
cause this  shall  become  to  us  salvation  and  con- 
fidence at  the  more  awful  judgment  seat  of  our 
Lord  and  Saviour."  Thus  also  said  the  other 
martyrs :  "  Do  what  you  will,  for  we  are 
Christians  and  do  not  sacrifice  to  idols." 

Thus,  like  Moses,  they  endured,  as  "  seeing 
him  who  is  invisible." 

III.    Justin  as  a  Witness 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  utterances  of  Justin 
Martyr  addressed,  in  his  two  Apologies^  to  An- 
toninus Pius,  the  emperor  of  Rome. 

Dr.  Basil  Gildersleeve  in  the  introduction  to 
his  edition  of  Justin's  Apologies,  says : — 

"  If  Justin  was  acquainted  with  the  Fourth 
Gospel,  the  whole  fabric  of  a  great  historical 
school  falls  to  the  ground." 

This  must  be  clear  to  all ;  for  if  the  first 
Apology  was  not  written  till  as  late  as  A.  D., 
147  the  date  which  Professor  Gildersleeve  fa- 


New  Light  on  a  Martyr'' s   Testimony         31 

vors,  it  was  written  several  years  before  the 
date  assigned  to  the  Gospel  of  John  by  the 
Tubingen  School,  i.  e.,  a.  d.  160-170.  Neander 
thinks  the  first  Apology  should  be  dated  A.  D. 
139.  He  says  :  "  After  the  death  of  the  Em- 
peror Hadrian,  persecutions  arose  against  the 
Christians,  in  the  beginning  of  the  reign  of 
Antoninus  Pius.  Thereby  Justin,  who  was 
then  resident  at  Eorae,  was  induced  to  address 
a  writing  in  defense  of  the  interests  of  the 
Christians  to  the  emperor.  Since,  however,  in 
the  superscription  of  this  work,  he  does  not  give 
the  title  of  Ccesar  to  M.  Aurelius^  it  is  probably 
to  be  inferred  that  it  was  written  before  his 
adoption  into  that  dignity,  which  took  place 
in  A.  D.  139." 

But,  taking  the  late  date,  there  can  be  no 
doubt  that  Justin  quotes  it,  and  he  surely 
could  not  have  quoted  it  from  thirteen  to, 
twenty-three  years  before  it  was  written,  or 
one  minute  before  it  was  written,  for  that 
matter. 

That  Justin  did  know  John's  Gospel,  must 
be  clear  to  any  open-minded  person  who  will 
read  in  his  first  Ajyology,  chapter  sixty-one, 
these  words: — 

"  Except  ye  be  born  again,  ye  cannot  enter 
into  the  kingdom  of  heaven."     In  addition  to 


32  New  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

this  he  goes  on  to  mention  other  words 
spoken  in  this  conversation  of  Christ  with 
Nicodemus,  recorded  in  the  third  chaptei'  of 
John's  Gospel. 

In  his  dialogue  with  Trypho,  chapter  ninety- 
one,  we  find  Justin  giving  a  comment  on  John 
3 :  11,  and  several  times  he  refers  to  the  name 
which  John  gives  to  Christ — the  Logos — "  the 
word."^  It  seems  plain  enough  then  that 
Justin,  the  successor  of  Aristides  and  Quad- 
ratus  as  a  defender  of  the  faith  did  have  the 
Gospel  of  John  in  his  hands,  and  therefore, 
"  the  whole  fabric  of  a  great  historical  school 
falls  to  the  ground."  Baur  may  hold  the 
theory  according  to  which  the  Gospel  of  John 
could  not  have  been  written  till  from  A.  d. 
160  to  170 ;  but  we  find  as  a  fact  that  it  is 
quoted  by  Justin  in  his  Apology  addressed  to  the 
Emperor  Antoninus  Pius,  and  the  theory  must 
yield  to  the  fact,  and  "fall  to  the  ground." 
How  is  it  with  the  three  synoptic  gospels  ? 

See  how  Justin  speaks  of  all  the  gospels 
together  under  a  name  which  may  be  unfamil- 
iar to  some  of  us,  but  which  seems  a  very 
natural  designation  for  them.  He  draws,  in  a 
few  words,  a  picture  of  the  worship  of  the 
Christians  on  Sunday.     He  tells  the  emperor : 

'  Not  in  Philo's  sense. — Gildersleeve. 


Neic  Light  on  a  Martyr^ s   Testimony        33 

"  On  the  day  called  the  day  of  the  Sun  (Sun- 
day) ^  there  is  a  gathering  together  of  all  who 
dwell  in  city  and  country,  with  one  accord 
(or  in  one  place),  and  the  Mernoirs  of  the 
Apostles  and  the  Avritings  of  the  prophets  are 
read."  He  continues  with  a  further  descrip- 
tion of  their  worship  including  the  administra- 
tion of  the  Lord's  Supper.  The  significant 
thing  for  us  here  is  that  The  Memoirs  of  the 
Aj?ostles  are  read  in  public  worship  and  are 
evidently  regarded  as  sacred  scriptures,  as 
they  are  read  along  with  Old  Testament  Scrip- 
tures. But  a  question  has  been  raised  as  to 
whether  these  Memoirs  of  the  Apostles  were 
our  gospels,  which  contain  apostolic  memoirs 
of  our  blessed  Lord.  The  controversy  has 
been  an  earnest  and  prolonged  one ;  but  it  is 
hard  to  see  how  there  can  be  any  room  for  a 
difference  of  opinion  about  the  matter.  We 
need  not  go  outside  of  the  writings  of  Justin 
himself  to  determine  without  a  shadow  of 
doubt  about  what  were  the  Memoirs  of 
the  Apostles.  We  need  only  cast  our  eyes 
up  to  the  preceding  chapter  of  the  first  apology 
on  the  same  page  (first  Apology  chapter  sixty- 
six)  and  we  read  "  The  apostles  in  the  memoirs 

^  rri  TOO  ijXiou  Xeyoiiivrj  ijixipa. 


34  NeiD  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

drawn  up  by  them,  which  are  called  gospels,  ^ 
thus  enjoined  on  them,  that  Jesus  taking 
bread,  having  blessed  it,  said,  '  This  do  in  re- 
membrance of  me ;  this  is  my  body,  and 
taking  the  cup,  and  having  given  thanks,  said, 
This  is  my  blood,'  "  etc. 

Surely  this  is  conclusive  as  to  what  the 
Memoirs  of  the  Apostles  are.  Justin  calls  them 
*' gospels,"  and  w^e  find  in  them  what  we  find 
to-day  in  our  gospels.  INTow  if  there  could  be 
any  lingering  doubt  that  this  general  name — 
Memoirs  of  the  Apostles — means  our  four 
gospels,  we  may  turn  to  another  work  of  Justin 
where  it  is  used  and  see  proofs  which  must 
immediately  scatter  these  doubts  to  the  winds. 
In  the  Dialogue  with  Trypho,  chapter  one 
hundred,  w^e  read  :  ''But  also  in  the  gospel  it  is 
written  'AH  things  are  delivered  me  of  my 
Father,'  and  'No  man  knoweth  the  Father  but 
the  Son  ;  nor  the  Son  but  the  Father,  and  they 
to  whom  the  Son  will  reveal  him.'  "     We  know, 

'Hostile  critics  have  alleged  that  this  last  expression  is  an 
interpolation.  But,  there  is  no  manuscript  evidence  to  sup- 
port this  allegation,  and  the  only  reason  they  have  made  it 
seems  to  be  that  the  words  are  so  plainly  fatal  to  their  con- 
tention. The  text  is,  so  far  as  is  known,  as  sound  here  as 
elsewhere.  "When  a  manuscript  is  found  that  does  not 
contain  the  words  '  which  are  called  gospels, '  the  gloss  theory 
will  deserve  respect.  Till  then  it  has  not  a  rag  of  reason  to 
hide  its  nakedness," — Nicholson  on  the  Gospel  according  to 
the  Hebrews,  p.  134. 


New  Light  on  a  Martyr^ a   Testimony         35 

of  course,  that  this  is  from  our  Gospel  of 
Matthew  11 :  27,  and  so,  what  Justin  states  is 
written  in  the  gospel,^  we  find  in  our  Gospel  of 
Matthew.  But  he  continues  :  "  Christ  called 
one  of  his  disciples,  previously  known  as  Simon, 
Peter,  since  he  recognized  him  to  be  the  Christ, 
the  Son  of  God,  by  the  revelation  of  his 
Father  ;  and  since  we  find  it  recorded  in  the 
Memoirs  of  the  Apostles,'^  etc.  All  will 
recognize  this  as  from  the  sixteenth  chapter  of 
Matthew,  and  this  he  says  is  "  recorded  in  the 
Memoirs  of  the  ApostlesP  So  our  Matthew 
must  be  a  part  of  these  Memoirs  of  the 
Apostles.  Look  on  a  little  farther,  and  in 
chapter  103  we  read : — 

"For,  if  the  Memoirs  which  I  say  Avere 
drawn  up  by  the  apostles  and  those  who  fol- 
lowed them,  it  is  recorded  that  his  sweat  fell 
down  like  blood  while  he  was  praying  and 
saying,  if  it  be  possible  let  this  cup  pass," 
etc. 

Here  we  find  a  quotation  combining  Luke 
22 :  41  and  42,  and  Matthew  2G :  39  and  he 
speaks  of  it  as  being  "  recorded  in  the  Memoirs 

^"Gospel"  is  often  used  to  mean  the  four  gospels,  as 
Watkins  puts  it,  "  to  express  the  unity  of  a  collected  plural- 
ity."    Justin  so  uses  it. — See  Wnildns^  Bampton  Leciiires. 

See,  also,  Charteris's  Canoniciti/,  especially  p.  63,  foot- 
note. 


36  New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

which  were  drawn  up  by  the  apostles,  and 
those  who  followed  them."  Now,  Matthew 
and  John  whom  he  quoted  were  apostles  and 
Mark  and  Luke  were  their  followers, — Mark  of 
Peter  and  Luke  of  Paul,  for  he  quotes  both  of 
these  extensively  also. 

If  we  had  space,  I  should  like  to  transcribe 
the  fifteenth  chapter  of  the  first  Aj^ology,  and 
show  how,  in  it  he  quotes,  Matthew  seven 
times,  Mark  eight  times,  and  Luke  five  times, 
so  that  in  the  short  chapter  of  less  than  two 
12mo  pages  we  have  a  cluster  of  selections 
from  the  three  synoptic  gospels  with  only  a 
few  words  of  his  own  to  serve  as  a  thread  to 
hold  together  the  jewels  gathered  from  these 
"•Memoirs  of  the  Ajyostles.^'' ^  I  think  ^ve 
would  be  very  unreasonable  to  demand  plainer 
proof  that  Justin  Martyr  had  just  the  gospels 
we  have  and  no  others — and  refers  to  them  as 
Memoirs  of  the  Aj)ostles. 

Prof.  James  Drummond,  Unitarian  critic, 
and  follower  of  Martineau,  says  of  the  foolish 
charge  that  John  was  copied  from  Justin  :  ^ — 

"  It  does  seem  to  me  surprising  that  any  one 
in  comparing  the  passages  in  Justin  and  John 

'  See  Appendix. 

^  It  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  one  set  of  critics  find 
nothing  of  John's  Gospel  in  Justin,  and  another  set  find  so 
much  that  they  make  this  charge. 


Neiu  Light  on  a  Martyr''s   Testimony         37 

should  doubt  for  one  moment  that  the  de- 
pendence is  on  the  side  of  the  former." 

This  sufficiently  "  Liberal "  critic  concludes  : 
"  I  must  conclude,  therefore,  as  best  satisfying, 
on  the  whole,  the  facts  of  the  case,  not  only 
that  Justin  regarded  the  Fourth  Gospel  as  one 
of  the  historical  '  memoirs '  of  Christ,  but 
that  it  is  not  improbable  that  he  believed  in 
its  Johannean  authorship.  This  is  a  very  old- 
fashioned  conclusion,  but  I  have  endeavored 
simply  to  follow  the  evidence  without  any 
ulterior  object  and  must  leave  the  result  to  the 
judgment  of  the  reader." 

How  remarkably  this  "  old-fashioned  con- 
clusion "  for  which  he  felt  bound  to  apologize, 
has  been  confirmed  by  the  discovery  of  The 
Diatessaron !  Since  this  discovery,  no  self- 
respecting  critic,  however  great  his  prejudices, 
can,  if  fully  informed,  either  assert  the  de- 
pendence of  John's  Gospel  on  Justin  or  deny 
that  Justin  knew  our  four  gospels,  and  them 
alone,  as  the  authoritative  Christian  records  of 
Christ's  life  and  teachings. 

It  is  very  hard  to  see  how  any  honest  reader 
of  Justin's  Ajyologies  and  Dialogue  could  have 
any  doubt  of  this  fact,  since  quotations  from 
the  Synoptic  Gospels  occupy  a  large  propor- 
tion of   the  space  these  writings  cover,  and 


38  New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

besides  evident  references  to,  and  quotations 
from,  the  Gospel  of  John,  the  whole  of  these 
writings  are  permeated  with  the  unique 
thought  of  this  gospel  which  stands  apart 
from  all  that  has  ever  been  written  by  the 
hand  of  man. 

The  destructive  critic  Thoma,  even,  saj^s  of 
Justin :  "  He  cites  the  Synoptics ;  he  thinks 
and  argues  according  to  John." 

All  this  was  evident  before  the  discovery  of 
The  Diatessaron.  Now,  the  case  is  settled  ; 
for  we  find  Tatian,  who  became  a  Christian 
under  the  instruction  of  Justin  about  a.  d.  150, 
making  a  harmony  out  of  the  four  gospels, 
and  using  ninety -six  per  cent  of  the  Gospel  of 
John  in  doing  so,  only  four  per  cent  being 
omitted  because  duplicated  by  statements  in 
the  other  gospels. 

"It  is  certain,"  says  Dr.  B.  Weiss,  "that 
Justin  is  also  acquainted  with  Pauline  epistles 
and  is  influenced  by  them.  It  is  characteristic 
throughout  that  what  he  has  chiefly  adopted 
from  the  Epistle  to  the  Eomans  is  the  applica- 
tion of  the  Old  Testament  in  the  Christian 
sense,  as  appears  from  the  many  citations  com- 
mon to  both  in  their  form,  connection  and  ap- 
plication (comp.  Kom.  3:  11-lY  and  Dial.  27; 
9 ;  27  ff.  and  Dial.  55 ;  11 :  16  and  Dial.  42 ; 


Ne/w  Light  on  a  Martyr'' s   Tedimony         39 

11 :  2  ff.  and  Dial.  39-10  ;  11: :  11  and  Dial.  52), 
and  the  repeated  statements  respecting  the 
justification  of  Abraham  as  the  father  of  be- 
lieving Gentiles,  taken  from  Kom.  4:  (Dial. 
11 ;  23-119)." 

For  proof  of  Justin's  use  of  other  Pauline 
epistles  see  Weiss'  Introduction  §7.  4. 

Weiss  shows  with  equal  clearness  Justin's 
use  of  the  Fourth  Gospel.  Lack  of  space  pre- 
vents the  presentation  of  the  evidence  in  his 
words  ;  but  his  conclusion  is  that  "  the  opinion 
that  Justin  was  not  yet  acquainted  w4th  the 
Fourth  Gospel,  once  so  obstinately  adhered  to 
by  the  Tubingen  School,  must  be  regarded  as 
definitely  set  aside." 

Justin  sometimes  quotes  the  gospels  with  the 
formula,  "  It  is  written,"  indicating  that  he 
regards  them  as  Scripture. 

The  use  of  the  Epistle  of  James  (Dial.  1.16), 
of  1  Peter  (Dial.  Y2),  and  of  The  Acts  (1 
Apology,  39,  40,  50),  is  clearly  shown.  His 
knowledge  of  The  Pevelation  and  the  fact 
that  it  was  written  by  the  Apostle  John,  is 
indicated  by  such  words  as  these  : — (Dial.  81). 

"There  was  a  certain  man  with  us  [Chris- 
tians] whose  name  was  John,  one  of  the  apos- 
tles of  Christ,  who  prophesied  by  a  revelation 
that  was  made  to  him."     Then  follows  a  refer- 


40  New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

ence  to  the  "thousand  years,  the  general,  and, 
in  short,  eternal  resurrection  and  judgment  of 
all  men."  Kev.  20. 

It  is  true  that  Justin  does  not  always  use 
the  precise  words  of  our  received  text.  He 
evidently  wrote  with  a  rapidly  running  pen, 
and  in  the  case  of  the  second  Apology,  written, 
probably,  on  the  eve  of  his  execution,  he  evi- 
dently did  not  turn  to  each  passage  to  verify 
his  quotations.  He  joins  together  the  words  of 
two  or  three  of  the  gospels  in  relating  an  inci- 
dent or  stating  a  truth.  Yet  I  think  no  one 
can  point  out  a  single  expression  which  be- 
longs to  any  of  the  apocryphal  gospels. 

The  apocryphal  "  Gospel  of  Peter,"  discov- 
ered a  few  years  ago  at  Akhmim  in  Egypt, 
which  was  in  all  probability  the  oldest  of  all 
the  apocryphal  gospels,  is  not  quoted  once. 
Justin's  quotations  are  just  such  as  would 
naturally  be  made  by  a  man  of  great  earnest- 
ness who  had  his  memory  well  stored  with  the 
Scriptures,  and  had  a  vast  number  of  quota- 
tions at  his  command,  but  did  not  turn  to  the 
chapter  and  verse,  and  copy  every  word  ac- 
curately. AVe  should  remember  that  there 
were  no  chapters  and  verses  then,  and  that 
Alexander  Cruden  was  not  yet  born. 

But,  lest  any  should  think  me  liable  to  mis- 


Kcw  Light  on  a  Marty r^s   Testimony         41 

take  on  this  point,  I  will,  before  concluding, 
quote  the  words  of  Westcott  (Canon,  p.  151). 
Says  he ;  "  It  is  enough  to  repeat  in  the 
presence  of  these  facts  that  differences  from 
the  present  text  of  the  gospels  such  as  are 
found  in  the  present  text  of  Justin  are  wholly 
inadequate  to  prove  that  passages  so  differing 
could  not  have  been  taken  from  copies  of  our 
gospels."  And  this  was  Avritten  before  the 
discovery  of  the  apocryphal  so-called  "  Gospel 
of  Peter,"  and  The  Diatessaron  of  Tatian. 

It  is  proper  to  remark  that  almost  certainly 
there  were  some  differences  between  the  text 
of  the  gospels  used  by  Justin  and  our  re- 
ceived text,  or  that  of  Westcott  and  Hort ; 
but  the  main  differences  between  his  quota- 
tions and  our  New  Testament  are  due  (as  is 
plainly  the  case  in  his  Old  Testament  quota- 
tions) to  the  fact  that  he  quoted  freely  from 
memory  and  not  with  Bible  and  concordance 
in  his  hands. 

Dr.  Purves  has  rendered  a  great  service  to 
the  cause  of  truth  and  sound  criticism  by  his 
L.  P.  Stone  lectures  on  Justin  Martyr,  deliv- 
ered at  Princeton,  and  no  one,  unless  domi- 
nated by  prejudice,  can  rise  from  the  perusal 
of  his  fifth  lecture,  in  which  he  brings  a  great 
mass  of  evidence  from  the  two  Apolo(j'u'k  and 


42  New  Light  on  the  New   Testameid 

the  Dialogue  to  show  Justin's  use  of  the  writ- 
ings which  we  now  call  the  IN'ew  Testament, 
without  agreeing  in  his  conclusion  that  Justin 
had  "  reference  to  a  distinct  Christian  litera- 
ture, which,  while  nothing  definite  is  said  of 
its  authority  in  the  Church,  was  evidently 
rec]:ulative  of  the  Church's  faith." 

The  fact  that  Justin  speaks  of  the  gospels 
as  read  in  the  public  worship  of  Christians 
along  with  the  writings  of  the  prophets,  that 
he  quotes  the  gospels  with  the  formula,  "  It  is 
written,"   together  with   his   reverent   use  of 

what  he  calls  "  our  writings  "  ( Scriptures), 

indicates  that,  having  the  New  Testament  al- 
most, if  not  quite,  in  its  entirety,^  he  regarded 
it,  though  not  yet  "  canonized  "  by  any  eccle- 
siastical council,  as  invested  with  the  authority 
of  apostles  who  had  received  the  Holy  Spirit 
according  to  Christ's  promise,  and  "  the  prom- 
ise of  the  Father." 

Referring  to  the  peculiarities  of  the  text 
which  Justin  had  before  him,  Dr.  Purves  says 
(p.  218):- 


1  Dr.  Eberhard  Nestle,  in  his  work,  Introduction  to 
Textual  Criticism  of  the  New  Testament,  though  once  a  pro- 
fessor of  Tiibingen,  moots  the  question  (following  Zahn), 
"Whether  the  entire  New  Testament",  as  the  Doctrine  of 
Addai  says,  w^as  not  a  present  which  Tatian  brought  with 
him  from  Rome  to  his  fellow-countrymen,''  etc. 


New  Light  on  a  Martyr's   Teatimony         43 

"  We  do  not  mean  that  Justin's  text  is  now 
represented  in  its  entirety  by  any  one  manu- 
script or  class  of  manuscripts,  but  that  he 
gives  evidence  of  that  corruption  of  the  ca- 
nonical texts  which,  according  to  abundant 
testimony,  took  place  even  in  the  century  im- 
mediately succeeding  that  in  which  they  were 
written,  and  which  most  plainly  appears  in 
those  manuscripts  which  textual  critics  have 
classified  as  'Western.'  If,  however,  this  be 
so,  then  Justin  testifies,  not  only  that  our 
synoptic  gospels  existed  in  his  day  and  were 
used  by  the  Church  as  public  documents,  and 
were  regarded  as  apostolic  and  authoritative 
records  of  the  life  of  Christ ;  but  he  also  proves, 
by  the  incidental  character  of  his  quotations 
and  by  their  very  variations  from  the  text  of 
our  gospels,  that  these  latter  were,  in  the 
middle  of  the  second  century,  already  ancient 
books,  handed  down  from  the  apostolic  age. 
Ko  more  explicit  testimony  to  our  synoptic 
gospels  could  well  be  asked  of  him ;  and  the 
very  difficulties  which  at  first  present  them- 
selves in  his  quotations,  in  the  end  confirm  his 
evidence  for  their  apostolic  authority." 

Farther  on  (p.  248)  he  declares,  "  It  is  clear 
that  at  least  the  gospels  had  been  formed  into 
a  sacred  collection  called  Hhe  gospel'  which 


44  NeiD  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

ranked  on  an  equality  with  the  Old  Testament, 
and  that  other  apostolic  books  were  used  to 
regulate  the  faith  of  the  Church." 

The  strange  mistake  of  Eusebius  in  interpret- 
ing the  words  of  Papias  seems  to  be  responsi- 
ble for  the  figment  of  a  second  John/  and  so 
to  have  helped  to  fashion  one  feature  of  that 
persistent  ghost,  the  "Johannean  problem," 
though  Eusebius  himself  had  not  a  shadow  of 
a  doubt  that  the  Fourth  Gospel  was  written  by 
the  Apostle  John. 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  phantom  of  false 
authorship,  at  least,  is  laid  now,  since  Tatian's 
Diatessaron  has  risen  from  the  dust  of  long 
oblivion  to  show  unmistakably  that  Tatian's 
teacher,  Justin,  had  the  gospel  of  that  John 
whom  Justin  describes  as  "  one  of  the  disciples 
of  Christ,"  and  the  writer  of  The  Eevelation.^ 


1  See  Farrar's  Early  Days  of  Christianity  Appendix,  Ex- 
cursus XIV.  I  think  that  no  unprejudiced  person  who  un- 
derstands Greek  can  read  this  "Excursus"  without  being 
convinced  that  Eusebius  misunderstood  Papias,  John  the 
Presbyter  was  John  the  Apostle.  The  fact  that  there  are 
two  tombs  of  Washinofton  at  Mt.  Vernon  does  not  prove 
that  there  were  two  Washingtons,  and  the  fact  that  there 
were  two  tombs  at  Ephesus,  each  claimed  to  be  a  tomb  of 
John,  does  not  prove  that  there  were  two  Johns. 

^Origen  says,  (Commentary  on  John,  Book  I,  Chap.  6), 
"  The  gospels  tlien,  being  four,  I  deem  the  firstfruits  of  the 
gospels  to  be  that  which  you  have  enjoined  me  to  search 
into  according  to  my  powers,  the  Gospel  of  John," 

Again,  he  says,  "  But  Luke,  though  he  says  at  the  begin- 


New  Light  on  a  3Iartyrs   Testimony        45 

This  new  light  on  the  old  monument  has 
made  its  inscriptions  clear  to  all — but  the 
blind. 

In  the  presence  of  evidence  so  incontroverti- 
ble, it  is  a  strange  thing  to  find  a  professor  in 
a  Congregational  Theological  Seminary  speak- 
ing, in  a  late  work,^  of  the  Gospel  of  John  as 
"a  writing  about  the  middle  of  the  second 
century."  But  then,  when  we  find  that  this 
theological  professor  does  not  believe  in  Christ, 
except  as  a  mere  man,  and  remember  how 
clearly  the  Gospel  of  John  teaches  his  divinity, 
we  see  the  explanation.  Something  had  to  be 
done  to  get  this  gospel  out  of  the  way ;  and 
so  in  the  face  of  all  the  overwhelming  evi- 
dence of  the  falsity  of  the  Tubingen  theory, 
he  still  adheres  to  it. 

It  may  be  true  that  German  theological 
theories  "  go  to  England  when  they  die,"  but 
they  do  not  stop  there.     America  is  receiving 


uing  of  The  Acts  '  The  former  treatise  did  I  make  about  all 
that  Jesus  began  to  do  and  teach, '  yet  leaves  to  him  who 
lay  on  Jesus'  breast  the  greatest  and  completest  discourses 
about  Jesus." 

There  was  no  "  Johannean  problem"  to  Origen  ;  and  it 
may  be  safely  asserted  that  no  man  living  from  A.  D.  185  to 
the  middle  of  the  third  century  knew  every  scrap  of  early 
Christian  literature  so  thoroughly  as  he. 

'  Evolution  of  Trinitarianism,  Professor  Paine,  Bangor 
Theol.  Sem. 


46  New  Light  on  the  New   Tedament 

a  full  share  of  these  unquiet  and  disquieting 
spirits  to  haunt  her  halls  of  theological  learn- 
ing, while  their  carcasses  still  pollute  the  relig- 
ious atmosphere  of  Germany. 


III. 

THE  GREAT  LIGHT  FKOM  THE  VATICAN 

1.  The  reader  will  naturally  wish  to  know 
more  of  the  Diatessaron  x)f  Tatian,  Justin's 
pupil,  which,  in  God's  good  providence,  arose 
from  its  long  sleep  and  showed  so  plainly  that 
Justin  had  our  four  gospels  and  no  others. 

When  Ciasca  showed  Antonius  Morcos,  the 
Apostolic  Visitor  of  the  Catholic  Copts,  the 
Arabic  copy  of  the  Diatessaron  in  the  Vatican 
library,  this  ecclesiastic,  as  we  have  seen, 
promised  to  send  him  another  manuscript  of 
the  same  work  which  was  owned  by  a  gentle- 
man in  Egypt.  So  there  are  now  in  Home 
two  Arabic  copies  of  the  Diatessaron.  The 
Egyptian  manuscript  bears  upon  it  the  name 
of  the  donor  in  the  following  inscription  at 
the  end :  "  A  present  from  Hallm  Dos  Ghali, 
the  Copt,  the  Catholic,  to  the  Apostolic  See, 
in  the  year  of  Christ,  1886." 

This  codex  is  described  as  follows :  "  The 
codex  consists  of  three  hundred  and  fifty-three 
leaves.     There  is   no   date   attached,  but  the 

47 


48  New  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

manuscript  seems  to  belong,  at  the  latest,  to 
the  fourteenth  century.  The  pages  are  nine  by 
six  and  one-quarter  inches,  inclosed  in  an  illu- 
minated square  of  golden,  red  and  purple  lines, 
with  an  ornamentation  of  golden  asterisks."  ^ 

This  manuscript  was  of  great  service  in  sup- 
plying two  lacunse  in  the  first,  caused  by  the 
loss  of  two  folios,  and  in  determining  doubtful 
readings.  It  is  described  as  being  better  than 
the  first,  in  text  and  other  respects,  but  quite 
inferior  to  it  in  orthography. 

It  was  deposited  in  the  Borgian  Library, 
and,  from  this  fact,  has  been  named  the  Borgian 
manuscript,  while  the  other  is  called  the  Vati- 
can, because  it  has  long  been,  and  still  is,  in 
the  Vatican  library.  It  is  entirely  clear  that 
these  manuscripts  are  not  copied  the  one  from 
the  other,  nor  from  any  common  exemplar, 
though  they  have  a  common  Syriac  remote 
ancestor. 

In  speaking  of  the  great  interest  excited  by 
the  discovery  of  the  "  New  Syriac  Gospels," 
by  Mrs.  Lewis,  in  1892,  Prof.  Eendel  Harris 
says,  that  "  one  of  the  first  questions  that  will 
be  asked  will  be,  *  Why  have  you  not  done  it 
into  English  ? '  "     This  has,  at  last,  been  done 

1  For  fuller  account  see  articles  by  Prof.  M.  Maher  in  The 
Month,  London,  for  November  and  December,  1892. 


The  Great  Light  from  the  Vatican  49 

in  the  case  of  Tatian's  great  work,  and  we 
have  The  Diatessaron  done  into  English.  We 
now  have  it  in  the  recently  published  ninth 
volume  of  The  Ante-Nicene  Fathers^  trans- 
lated, according  to  the  statement  of  the  title- 
page,  by  Eev.  Hope  W.  Hogg,  B.  D.,  though 
he  informs  us  that  his  wife  translated  the  larger 
part  for  him.  The  statement  of  the  title-page 
is,  then,  made  on  the  principle.  Qui  facit per 
aliuiii  facit  i?er  se,  only  the  aliimi  should  be 
aliam  in  this  case. 

It  is  in  keeping  with  a  great  trend  of  our 
times  that  we  find  the  Cambridge  ladies,  Mrs. 
Lewis  and  her  sister  Mrs.  Gibson,  going  to  the 
St.  Catherine  Convent  at  Mount  Sinai,  and  dis- 
covering the  Syriac  Gospels,  and  then  see  this 
Oxford  lady  w^orking  side  by  side  with  her 
husband  in  giving  the  Diatessaron  of  Tatian 
to  the  English-speaking  world. 

But  an  interesting  question  is,  what  of  the 
form  and  contents  of  the  Diatessaron  f 

II.  The  Diatessaron  as  We  !N'ow  Have  It 

Harmonies  are  made  in  two  forms,  either  in 
parallel  columns  (where  the  subject  is  men- 
tioned by  more  than  one  evangelist),  or  with 
all  the  gospels  interwoven,  so  as  to  give  a  con- 


50  New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

tinuous  narrative  of  events  and  utterances. 
The  Diatessaron,  or  Harmony,  of  Tatian  is  of 
the  latter  kind. 

{o)     A  Continuous  Account 

The  narratives  of  all  the  evangelists  are  com- 
bined so  as  to  give  an  account  of  our  Saviour's 
life  and  teachings  in  chronological  order,  so 
far  as  the  compiler  could  determine  this  order. 
In  this  respect  it  is  like  the  late  Dr.  William 
M.  Taylor's  Life  of  Our  Lord  in  the  Words 
of  the  Four  Evangelists^  and  other  harmonies 
which  might  be  mentioned.  Hence,  some  old 
writers  speak  of  it  as  the  "  gospel  of  the  com- 
hined^''  as  distinguished  from  the  distinct  gos- 
pels. 

(J)     The  Genealogies  Omitted 

Tatian  omitted  the  genealogies.  Theodoret 
intimates  that  this  was  due  to  a  heretical  tend- 
ency, and  says  that  he  also  omitted  every- 
thing which  indicated  that  our  Saviour  was  de- 
scended from  David.  That  the  last  accusation 
is  due  to  the  prejudice  of  the  heresy  hunter  is 
made  clear  by  an  inspection  of  the  Diatessaron. 
No  such  omissions  are  to  be  found.  On  the 
other  hand,  in  the  very  first  section,  Christ  is 
spoken  of  as  the  son  of  David.  "  The  Lord 
God  shall  give  unto  him  the  throne  of  his  father 


The  Great  Light  from  the  Vatican  51 

David  "^  is  the  expression  which,  above  all 
others,  would  have  been  omitted  in  such  a 
case,  but  it  is  found  here,  coupled  with  the  an- 
nouncement that  "  he  shall  be  great,  and  shall 
be  called  the  Son  of  the  Highest."  He  did 
omit  the  genealogies,  but  so  does  Dr.  Taylor, 
who  surely  will  never  be  accused  of  Docetism. 
The  omission  was  evidently  due  to  the  fact 
that  it  would  be  difficult  to  fit  them  into  a  con- 
tinuous narrative.^ 

{c)  The  Diatessaron  is  Divided  into  Fifty- 
five  Sections 

It  is  only  in  comparatively  recent  times  that 
our  Bibles  have  been  divided  into  chapters  and 
verses  for  convenience  of  reference,  and  it  is 
altogether  probable  that  this  division  of  the 
Diatessaron  into  sections  was  made  for  the 
convenience  of  those  who  read  it  in  public 
services  in  Syria  for  several  centuries.  The 
division  could  not  have  been  made  by  a  man 
of  Tatian's  sense.  It  looks  like  the  work  of 
an  idiot  in  many  places,  as  there  is  no  regard 
whatever  to  the  subject,  the  division  often 
coming  in  the  middle  of  a  narrative.     Eendel 

'  Luke  1 :  32. 

"^  The  two  Arabic  manuscripts,  the  Vatican  and  the  Bor- 
gian,  have  the  genealogies,  the  first  side  by  side  in  the 
narrative,  and  the  latter  ap])ended  at  the  close  They  have 
evidently  been  added  by  another  hand  after  Tatian's  day. 


52  New  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

Harris  suggests  that  this  division  into  fifty-five 
sections  was  made  in  order  that  the  whole 
might  be  read  in  churches  ^  during  the  year  on 
the  Sabbaths  and  principal  feasts.  This  seems 
altogether  probable;  but  it  is  time  to  look 
at  — 

{d)  Some  Peculiar  Readings  of  the  Diates- 
saron 

We  should  remember  that  it  was  almost  in- 
evitable that  there  should  be  many  expressions 
which  would  sound  rather  strange  to  ears  ac- 
customed to  the  rhythm  of  the  familiar  words 
of  King  James'  version,  which  we  have  heard 
from  our  childhood.  Even  the  Ke vised  Version 
sometimes  at  first  surprised  us  with  an  unfa- 
miliar expression,  though  that  is  professedly 
not  a  new  translation,  but  a  revision  of  that  of 
King  James'.  The  Diatessai'on  was,  as  far  as 
we  can  trace  it,  a  Syriac  Version.  On  the  other 
hand,  we  have  had  the  Greek  text  of  the  New 
Testament,  the  nearest  to  the  original  that 
could  be  determined  by  all  the  critical  means 
available,  and  from  it  our  English  version  was 
made,  and  the  revised  version  was  based  chiefly 
on  the  Greek  text  of  Westcott  and  Hort,  the 

^  This  is  another  reason  for  the  omission  of  the  genealogies. 
They  may,  indeed,  have  been  in  the  original  work  ;  but  ex- 
cluded in  the  preparation  of  it  for  public  reading. 


The  Great  Light  from  the  Vatican         53 

greater  correctness  of  which  was  secured 
through  many  sources  unknown  when  King 
James'  version  was  translated. 

It  is  necessary  to  remember  that  the  Diet- 
tessaron  was  almost  certainly  composed  in 
Syriac.  In  spite  of  its  Greek  name  and  other 
reasons  which  Harnack  urged  for  thinking 
that  it  was  originally  composed  in  Greek, 
Syriac  scholars  who  have  examined  the  ques- 
tion with  great  care  pronounce  it  as  certain 
that  it  was  a  Syriac  book.  At  any  rate,  we 
know  that  from  the  early  dawn  of  Syrian 
Christianity  it  was  used  in  the  churches  in 
Syria.  Therefore,  when  we  read  the  Diates- 
saron  in  the  English  version  just  published,  we 
are  reading  the  translation  of  a  text  that 
branched  off  from  the  Greek  very  early,  and 
that  has  passed  through  many  vicissitudes,  and 
may  have  suffered  changes  by  the  mistakes  of 
copyists,  by  mistranslations  in  passing  from 
version  to  version,  and  that  has  been  influenced, 
as  we  have  clear  evidence,  by  contact  with 
different  versions  which  are  well  known.  The 
accretions,  and  other  changes  from  such 
sources,  are  noted  by  the  learned  editor  of  the 
Diatessaroii  in  abundant  footnotes.  This 
being  so,  we  need  not  expect  the  version  be- 
fore us  to  tally  exactly  with  either  our  Author- 


54  New  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

ized  or  the  Eevised  Version.  In  spite  of  all  this, 
it  is  seldom  that  the  meaning  is  affected  to  any 
marked  degree.  Some  of  the  most  singular 
turns  of  expression  will  be  given,  though,  of 
course,  the  space  allowed  will  not  admit  of  any 
full  display  of  these  peculiarities.  Here  are 
some  examples :  — 

Old  Simeon  was  preserved  till  he  had  "  seen 
with  his  eyes  the  Messiah  of  the  Lord."  And 
in  this  form  we  have  his  "  Wunc  Dimittis^''^ 
"  Now  loosest  thou  the  bonds  of  thy  servant, 
O  Lord,  in  peace."  We  are  rather  surprised 
at  the  expression  in  the  account  of  the 
offering  of  the  Magi  (which  seems  natural 
enough,  however,  when  we  remember  that 
the  camel  was  then,  as  it  still  is,  used  to 
cross  the  desert),  ^'  They  opened  their  saddle- 
bags and  offered  to  him  offerings  of  gold, 
frankincense,  and  myrrh "  (Matt.  2 :  11). 
In  the  account  of  the  visit  to  Jerusalem 
during  our  Saviour's  childhood,  we  are  told 
that  Joseph  and  his  mother  "  supposed  that 
he  was  with  the  children  of  their  company  " 
(Luke  2:  44). 

The  version  of  John  1:18,  giving  a  glimpse 
of  the  inscrutable  relations  of  the  Father  and 
Son,  is,  "  the  only  Son,  God,  which  is  in  the 
bosom  of  the  Father,  he  hath  told  of  him."     In 


The  Great  Light  from  the  Vatican  55 

that  scene  in  which  John  pointed  out  Christ 
to  his  own  disciples,  as  John  saw  Jesus  coming 
unto  him,  we  hear  him  saying  :  "  This  is  the 
lamb  of  God  that  taketh  on  itself  the  burden 
of  the  sins  of  the  world  "  (John  1 :  29).  When 
his  family  could  not  understand  the  change 
that  came  over  him  when  he  began  his  public 
ministry  and  spoke  his  wonderful  words  and 
did  his  wonderful  deeds,  we  are  told,  "  And 
his  relatives  heard,  and  went  out  to  take  him, 
and  said.  He  hath  gone  out  of  his  mind."  We 
find  the  Diatessaron  following  the  Greek  more 
closely  and  translating  it  more  literally  than 
our  own  English  versions  in  the  account  of  the 
thronging  of  the  multitude  about  him  when 
he  ^vas  healing  many,  "so  that  they  w^ere 
almost  falling  ujpon  {Ininir.Teo)  him^  on  account 
of  their  seeking  to  get  near  him "  (Mark  3 : 
10).  The  two  sparrows  are  spoken  of  as  "sold 
for  a  farthing  iri  a  hond.^^  The  meaningless 
phrase  "in  a  bond"  seems  to  have  crept  into 
the  text  by  the  similarity  of  the  Syriac  word 
for  "  farthing "  and  that  for  "  in  a  bond." 
Indeed,  a  footnote  tells  us  that  the  two 
phrases  are  but  different  explanations  of  the 
same  Syriac  consonants.  In  the  account  of 
the  giving  of  sight  to  the  blind  man,  Barti- 
maeus,  we  have  one  of  the  many  indications  of- 


56  NeiD  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

the  line  of  descent — the  family  genealogy,  so 
to  speak — of  the  Diatessaron  text.  When  our 
Saviour  asks  the  blind  man  what  he  wishes 
him  to  do  for  him,  the  Diatessaron  represents 
him  as  replying,  "  My  Lord  and  Master,  that 
my  eyes  may  be  opened,  so  that  I  may  see 
thee."^^  This  remarkable  addition  to  our  Greek 
text  is  found,  like  many  of  the  peculiar  readings 
of  the  Diatessaron^  in  the  Curetonian  Syriac 
manuscript.  Several  of  these,  too,  are  found 
in  the  "ISTew  Syriac  Gospels,"  as  Kendel 
Harris  calls  them,  discovered  by  Mrs.  Lewis 
at  Mt.  Sinai  in  1892.  These  peculiar  expres- 
sions indicate  a  relationship  between  the 
Diatessaron  and  the  Curetonian  and  Lewis 
texts.  But  more  of  this  anon.  Passing  on  to 
the  betrayal  of  our  blessed  Lord,  we  find  the 
expression  in  reference  to  the  thirty  pieces  of 
silver,  "the  thirty  pieces  of  money,  the  price 
of  the  precious  one."  The  seamless  robe  is  thus 
referred  to :  "  And  his  tunic  was  without 
sewing,  from  the  top  woven  throughout." 
Our  Saviour's  cry  from  the  cross  to  his  Father 
is  given  in  a  strange  form  :  "  Yall,  Yaili,  why 
hast  thou  forsaken  me?"  In  a  footnote  the 
translator  says,  "  The  syllable  *  Ya '  is,  dou})t- 
less,  the  Arabic  interjection,  '  O  ! '  so  that  it  is 
'  O  God  !  O  my  God  ! '  "  etc.     The  centurion 


The  Great  Light  from  the  Vatican  57 

-who,  at  the  crucifixion,  commanded  the  guard, 
is  called  "  the  officer  of  the  foot-soldiers,"  and 
this  the  editor  considers  a  mistake  of  the  trans- 
lator into  Arabic.  It  is,  perhaps,  unnecessary 
to  give  more  instances  of  peculiar  readings. 
These,  as  has  been  intimated,  are  such  as  we 
might  very  naturally  expect  to  find  in  a  text 
which  was  translated  from  the  Greek  at  a  very 
early  day,  and  had  been  retranslated  into 
Arabic,  and,  of  course,  recopied  a  number  of 
times. 

We  are  familiar  with  the  sight  of  a  large 
snowball  rolled  on  the  ground  in  various 
directions,  with  one  object  after  another 
adhering  to  it,  having  been  picked  up  in  its 
course,  while,  perhaps,  a  bit  of  color  on  its 
surface  here  and  there  shows  the  kind  of  soil 
on  which  it  has  been  rolled.  It  is  liable  to  be 
somewhat  thus  with  the  text  that  has  been 
translated  and  copied  over  and  over  again. 
Some  accretions  will  stick  to  it,  and  it  will 
take  the  color  of  the  life  and  habits  and  modes 
of  speech  of  the  people  among  whom  it  is 
translated  or  copied,  and  the  peculiarities  of 
versions  with  w4iich  it  has  come  in  contact. 
A  remarkable  thing  about  the  Diatessaron,  is 
that  its  text  is  so  pure  that  no  doctrine  or  fact 
of  the  New  Testament  is  at  all  distorted  in 


58  Neic  Light  on  the  New   Tedament 

it;^  and  the  characteristic  to  wliich  attention 
should  be  drawn  is,  that  Tatian  gave  only  the 
words  of  the  four  evangelists.  No  word  of  ex- 
planation connects  the  phrases  that  are  care- 
fully woven  together  to  set  forth  the  wonder- 
ful life  and  words  of  Christ.  Xo  attempted 
reconciliation  of  apparent  discrepancies  is 
given ;  and  there  is  nothing  answering  to  the 
headings  of  chapters  in  our  English  Bible, 
even.  In  the  words  of  the  last  writer  who 
mentions  the  Diatessaron  as  a  work  whicli  he 
knew,  before  its  disappearance,  Abd  Ischo  (or 
Ebed  Jesu),  who  died  early  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  "  With  all  diligence  he  attended  to 
the  utmost  degree  to  the  right  order  of  those 
tilings  which  were  done  and  said  by  the 
Saviour ;  of  his  own  he  did  not  add  a  single 
saying."  ^ 

^  Yet,  when  read  at  family  prayers  its  peculiar  expressions 
enchain  the  attention  of  young  and  old,  throwing,  as  they 
sometimes  do,  new  light  on  the  narrative. 

'•^  It  seems  impossible  to  account  for  Harnack's  charge  of 
freedom  in  the  handling  of  the  gospels  by  Tatian  in  making 
his  harmony,  unless  he  considers  the  very  act  of  making  a 
harmony  one  of  freedom.  No  harmonist  from  Tatian's  day 
to  our  OAvn,  it  may  safely  be  said,  ever  handled  the  gospels 
with  more  reverence.  He  seemed  to  refrain,  indeed,  from 
putting  in  one  word  of  his  own,  even  as  a  connective,  or  for 
purposes  of  reconciliation  of  accounts  or  of  explanation  of 
obscurities.  One  does  not  like  to  think  that  the  exigencies 
of  Harnack's  critical  creed  may  have  influenced  his  judg- 
ment. 


The  Great  Light  from  the  Vatican         59 

While  the  Diatessaron  gathered  some  accre- 
tions, on  the  other  hand  we  find  that  it  escaped 
some  corruptions  that  are  found  in  our  Greek 
received  text.  One  such  case,  at  least,  and 
that  a  notable  one,  may  be  seen  in  the  omission 
of  the  account  of  the  woman  taken  in  adultery, 
which,  by  the  almost  unanimous  consent  of 
critics,  is  now  considered  spurious.  It  crept 
into  the  text  very  early.  But  it  evidently  was 
not  considered  a  part  of  the  Holy  Scripture 
(though  it  may  have  been  known  as  a  verbal 
tradition)  in  the  time  of  Origen.  In  his  com- 
mentary on  John,  just  published,  in  the  same 
volume  with  the  Diatessaron^  that  account 
(John  Y :  53-8  :  11)  is  omitted.  The  fact  that 
Tatian  omits  it  indicates  that  he  wrote  before 
it  had  crept  into  the  text.  The  Diatessaron, 
does,  however,  include  the  gloss  (as  it  almost 
certainly  is),  about  the  angel  descending  and 
troubling  the  water  in  the  pool  of  Bethesda 
(John  5 : 3,  4),  and  this  is  an  indication  of  the 
very  early  introduction  into  the  text  of  these 
words,  which  were  probably  written  as  an  ex- 
planation by  some  transcriber  who  lived  early 
enough  to  know  of  this  as  the  traditional  belief 
of  the  Jews  about  this  pool. 

When   we  see  so  remarkable  a  work  as  the 
Diatessaron   in    which,    with  great  care,  the 


60  New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

four  gospels  are  interwoven,  one  supplying 
Avliat  another  omits,  in  order  to  form  a  con- 
tinuous account  of  the  life  of  our  Lord,  wo 
are  naturally  anxious  to  know  what  manner 
of  man  it  was  who,  little  more  than  a  half 
century  after  the  last  gospel  was  penned, 
undertook  this  labor  of  love.  Tatian,  like 
Justin  Martyr,  who,  it  seems,  led  him  to 
Christ,  was  a  heathen  philosopher  who  came 
to  find  the  truest  philosophy  in  Christianity. 

III.    Tatian,  the  First  Harmonist 

He  is  the  first  harmonist  of  whom  anything 
is  known,  and  it  is  not  at  all  probable  that  there 
was  one  before  him.  His  great  zeal  for  Chris- 
tianity, as  well  as  his  originality  and  genius, 
point  to  him  as  the  probable  inventor  of  this 
mode  of  presenting  the  life  of  our  blessed 
Lord  on  earth. 

In  the  introductory  note  to  the  Borgian 
manuscript  of  the  Dlatessaron  he  is  called 
"  Titianus,  the  Greek."  This  is  evidently  the 
mistake  of  a  copyist,  for  he  himself  tells  us  in 
so  many  words  that  he  was  an  Assyrian.^    It  is 


^  He  -was  probably  of  Greek  parentage,  though  born  in 
Assyria.  Assyria  had  been  incorporated  by  Trajan  in  the 
Roman  province  of  Syria.  Hence  he  is  sometimes  called  a 
Syrian. 


The  Great  Light  from  the  Vatican  61 

true  that  be  wrote  in  Greek  as  well  as  in  Syriac, 
of  wiiicli  his  Address  to  the  Greelcs  (^Aoyoi  r.pd^ 
EUr^'^a^)  is  witness.  He  was  a  student  of 
philosophy  in  general,  but  inclined  to  that  of 
Plato  as  his  own  philosophical  creed.  He  was 
born  and  reared  a  heathen,  and,  in  the  prosecu- 
tion of  his  studies,  traveled  over  many  coun- 
tries that  he  might  study  the  systems  of 
various  nations.  When  he  became  acquainted 
with  the  Old  Testament  Scriptures  he  was  im- 
pressed vfith  the  fact  that  these  "barbaric 
books,"  as  be  at  first  considered  them  (as  a 
Greek  philosopher  of  that  day  very  naturally 
would),  were  "too  old  to  be  compared  with 
the  learning  of  the  Greeks,  too  divine  to  be 
put  on  a  level  with  their  erroneous  doctrine." 
It  should  be  remembered  that  Moses  preceded 
Herodotus,  "  the  father  of  history,"  by  more 
than  a  millennium,  and  it  is  not  strange  that 
be  should  have  been  impressed  with  the  vener- 
able antiquity  of  the  books  which  "Moses 
wrote."  Fortunately  for  him  the  higher  critics 
were  not  to  be  born  for  nearly  two  millenni- 
ums after  his  time. 

The  account  of  his  conversion  to  Christianity 
is  thus  given  by  l^eander,  who  makes  a  sum- 
mary of  what  Tatian  himself  tells  in  his 
Address  to  the  GreeJcs  : — 


62  New  Light  on  the  Neio   Testament 

"  He  was  brought  up  in  heathenism,  and  frequent  travels 
gave  him  the  opportunity  of  learning  the  multifarious  sorts  of 
heathen  worship  which  at  that  time  w^ere  existing  together 
in  the  Eoman  empire.  None  among  them  all  could  recom- 
mend itself  to  him  as  reasonable.  Not  only  did  he  ol^serve 
how  religion  was  used  in  them  to  the  service  of  sin,  but  even 
the  highly  wrought  allegorical  interpretations  of  the  ancient 
myths  as  symbols  of  a  speculative  system  of  natural  philosophy 
could  not  satisfy  him  ;  and  it  appeared  to  him  a  dishonorable 
proceeding  for  a  man  to  attach  himself  to  the  popular 
religion  who  did  not  partake  in  the  common  religious  belief, 
and  who  saw  nothing  in  its  doctrine  about  the  gods  but 
symbols  of  the  elements  and  powers  of  nature.  The  mys- 
teries into  which  he  suffered  himself  to  be  initiated  appeared 
to  him  also,  in  the  same  manner,  not  to  correspond  to  the 
expectations  which  they  awakened  ;  and  the  contradictory 
systems  of  philosophy  offered  him  no  sure  grounds  of  reli- 
gious faith.  He  was  rendered  mistrustful  of  them  by  the 
contradiction  which  he  often  observed  in  those  who  gave 
themselves  out  as  philosophers,  between  the  seriousness 
which  they  exhibited,  for  the  sake  of  appearances,  in  their 
dress,  mien,  and  language,  and  the  levity  of  their  conduct. 
While  he  was  in  this  condition  he  came  to  the  Old  Testa- 
ment, to  which  his  attention  was  drawn  by  what  he  had 
heard  of  the  high  antiquity  of  these  writings  in  comparison 
with  the  Hellenic  religions,  as  might  easily  be  the  case 
with  a  Syrian.  He  himself  says  of  the  impression  which 
the  reading  of  this  book  made  upon  him  : — 

"  '  These  writings  found  acceptance  with  me  because  of 
the  simplicity  of  their  language,  the  unstudiedness  of  the 
writers,  the  intelligible  history  of  the  creation,  because  of 
the  prediction  of  the  future,  because  of  the  wholesomeness 
of  their  precepts,  and  because  of  the  doctrine  of  the  ONE 
GOD  which  prevails  throughout  them.' 

' '  The  impression  which  the  study  of  the  Old  Testament 


Tlie  Gi^eat  Light  from  the  Vatican  63 

made  on  him  would  appear,  from  this,  to  have  been  with 
him  the  preparation  for  a  belief  in  the  gospel. 

"Coming,  in  this  state  of  mind,  to  Kome,  he  was  con- 
verted to  Christianity  by  Justin,  of  whom  he  speaks  with 
great  reverence.'' — Neander^s  Church  History,  p.  418,  Eosea 
translation. 


Tatian,  like  his  spiritual  father,  Justin 
Martyr,  retained  his  philosopher's  cloak  after 
he  became  a  Christian,  maintaining  the  posi- 
tion that  he  did  not  cease  to  be  a  philosopher 
in  embracing  Christianity,  but  rather  advanced 
to  that  which  is  the  highest  and  only  true 
philosophy. 

So  firmly,  however,  were  some  of  the  princi- 
ples of  Platonism  rooted  in  his  mind  that  he 
seems  to  have  been  much  influenced  by  them  in 
his  views  and  teachings  during  the  latter  part 
of  his  life.  While  Justin  lived,  however,  we 
have  the  best  testimony  that  he  was  free  from 
the  fault  of  teaching  that  dualism  which  is 
laid  to  his  charge  in  his  latter  days. 

Some  time,  we  know  not  how  long,  after  the 
martyrdom  of  Justin,  he  became  a  leader 
among  the  Encratites,  and,  it  seems,  declaimed 
against  marriage  and  the  drinking  of  wine  as 
sinful.  He  also  taught  that  Adam  was  not 
saved,  deducing  this  opinion  from  the  assertion 
of  the  Scriptures  that  "  In  Adam,  all  die." 


64  Neio  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

Irengeus  and  Hippolytus  speak  of  Tatian  as, 
at  last,  a  Gnostic,  and  Valentinian  teachings 
are  attributed  to  him. 

These  accusations  quite  probably  contain  an 
element  of  exaggeration  as  the  result  of 
ecclesiastical  zeal,  as  Tatian  is  said  by  Irenaeus 
to  have  "  separated  from  the  Church." 

Whatever  amount  of  deflection  from  the 
truth  of  Christianity  he  may  have  been  guilty 
of,  we  may  be  quite  sure  that  it  was  due  to 
that  fruitful  source  of  heresies  in  all  ages — ours 
being  by  no  means  an  exception — the  adoption 
of  a  false  philosophy  and  the  endeavor  to  fit 
Christianity  to  the  Procrustean  bed  thus  pre- 
pared for  it.  The  whole  history  of  Gnosticism 
is  an  illustration  of  this  process  as  followed  in 
the  early  days  of  Christianity,  and  the  destruct- 
ive school  of  criticism,  founded  by  Baur  of 
Tubingen  on  the  postulates  of  the  Hegelian 
philosophy,  is  an  object  lesson  for  our  times  of 
the  folly  of  assuming  the  infallibilit\^  of  some 
human  theory  and  then  trying  to  square  God's 
word  to  it.  The  reverse  order  of  procedure 
must  suggest  itself  to  every  one  who  believes 
in  the  infallibility  of  the  Scriptures  as  a  Reve- 
lation from  God  to  man,  as  the  only  true  and 
safe  course. 

IreucTus  tells  us  (Adv.  Haeres.  Book  I,  Ch. 


The  Great  Light  from  the  Vatican  65 

xxviii.)  that  as  long  as  Tatian  enjoyed  the 
companionship  of  Justin  Martyr,  "he  ex- 
pressed no  such  views,  but  after  his  (Justin's) 
martyrdom,  he  separated  from  the  Church," 
and  also  that  he  "  composed  his  own  peculiar 
type  of  doctrine,"  and  that,  among  other 
things,  "  he  declared  that  marriage  was  noth- 
ing but  corruption  and  fornication." 

We  may  well  grieve  that  one  who  was  so 
earnest  in  his  advocacy  of  Christianity,  and 
who  held  himself  always  in  readiness  to  lay 
down  his  life  in  testimony  of  his  faith,  should, 
in  any  degree,  have  turned  from  the  straight 
line  of  orthodoxy,  and  should,  at  last,  have 
separated  himself  from  the  Church ;  yet  we 
can  never  be  too  grateful  for  the  fact  that  he 
composed  the  Diatessaron  from  the  very  words 
of  the  inspired  gospels  of  our  Lord,  "adding 
not  one  of  his  own." 

Much  as  we  may  regret  the  false  views  into 
which  a  false  philosophy  and  a  mistaken  zeal 
led  him,  it  is  an  additional  reason  for  grati- 
tude that  this  very  departure  from  orthodoxy 
on  Tatian's  part  makes  the  evidence  of  the 
Diatessaron  for  the  genuineness  of  the  gospels 
more  decisive ;  because  this  makes  it  well- 
nigh  certain  that  he  composed  the  harmony  in 
the  earlier  part  of  his  Christian  career.     This 


66  New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

will  be  more  fully  considered  when  we  come 
to  make  an  estimate  of  the  value  of  the  evi- 
dence furnished  by  this  work. 

We  will  now  turn  to  look  at  some  of  the 

lY.    Foot-prints  of  the  Diatessaron 
Down  the  Ages 

There  are  few  books  that  have  come  down 
to  us  through  more  than  seventeen  centuries 
that  have  left  plainer  traces  along  their  paths. 
There  is  ample  evidence  of  the  existence  of 
the  work  from  a  very  early  date  down  to  the 
time  of  the  Nestorian  bishop  Ebed  Jesu  (or, 
as  our  translator  writes  it,  Abd  Ischo),  who 
died  in  1308.  For  more  than  five  centuries  it 
had  been  lost,  or  at  least  had  been  unrecog- 
nized b}^  the  learned,  when  it  was  translated 
into  Latin  by  Ciasca  in  1888.  We  have  it 
now  in  the  two  Arabic  manuscripts  which 
have  been  mentioned,  as  well  as  the  commen- 
tary on  it  written  by  Ephraem  Syrus,  who  died 
in  A.  D.  373.  This  'commentary  is  in  two 
manuscripts  in  the  Armenian  language,  which 
have  a  common  remote  ancestor,  doubtless, 
but  differ  enough  to  show  that  neither  w^as 
copied  from  the  other.  These  Armenian 
manuscripts  contain  a  commentary  following 
in  a  remarkable  way  the  same  order  of  events 


The  Great   Light  from  the,  Vatican  67 

as  the  coiii})lete  Arabic  manuscripts  of  the 
Diatessaron  which  we  now  have.  It  has  been 
remarked  that  w^hile  these  Arabic  manuscripts 
show  the  influence  on  their  text  of  the  Peshito 
version  (or  Peshitta,  as  it  is  now  called),  the  Ar- 
menian manuscripts  of  Ephraem's  commentary 
contain  peculiar  readings  of  the  Curetonian 
manuscript  and  of  that  which  Rendel  Harris 
considers  the  Curetonian's  ancestor,  the  Lewis 
Sinai  tic  Palimpsest ;  ^  and  references  and  quota- 
tions *'  go  to  show  that  the  Armenian  text 
stands  much  more  closely  related  to  the  original 
than  does  the  Arabic  "  (Introd.  in  IX.  Yol. 
Ante-Nicene  Fathers,  §  15). 

Thus  the  Armenian  manuscripts  are  another 
independent  witness,  not  only  of  the  existence, 
from  very  early  times,  of  the  Diatessaron^  but 
of  the  fact  that  Ephraem  wrote  a  commentary 
on  it,  for  they  are  manuscripts  of  that  com- 
mentary itself. 

The  Diatessaron  w^as  very  extensively  used 
in  Syrian  churches  until  the  Peshito  version 
(Peshitta)  gradually  took  its  place  in  the  fifth 
century.  Even  after  this  it  was  studied  and 
valued. 

Dionysius  Bar  Salibi,  Bishop  of  Armida 
(twelfth    century),    has    this    to    say   of    it: 

'  Called  by  Harris,  The  New  Syriac  Gos2)els. 


68  New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

'*  Tatian,  disciple  of  Justin,  the  philosopher 
and  martyr,  selected  from  the  four  gospels 
and  combined  and  composed  a  gospel,  and 
called  it  Diatessaro7i — i.  e.,  The  Combined, 
.  .  .  and  upon  this  gospel  Mar  Ephraern 
commented.  Its  commencement  was  '  In  the 
beginning  was  the  Word.'  " 

But  this,  with  the  exception  of  the  assertion 
that  the  Diatessaron  began  with  the  first  verse 
of  the  Gospel  of  John,  was  said,  about  350 
years  earlier,  by  a  Syriac  commentator  on  the 
New  Testament,  Isho  'dad  of  Merv  (a.  d.  852), 
who  mentions,  also,  another  Diatessaron  by 
Ammonius,^  who  lived  nearly  a  century  after 
Tatian. 

As  belonging  to  this  (ninth)  century,  the 
subscription  of  the  Borgian  manuscript  should 
be  noted.  As  we  have  seen,  that  states  that 
it  was  translated  from  Syriac  into  Arabic 
''  from  an  exemplar  written  by  'Isa-ibn-'Alial- 
Motatabbib,  pupil  of  Honain  ibn-Ishak,"  who, 
we  learn,  was  a  famous  Arabic  physician  and 
teacher  of  Bagdad  (d.  773),  whose  school  pro- 
duced many  translators. 


'  This  Harmony  of  Ammonius  of  Alexandria  (not  Am- 
monius  Saccas)  was  nnlike  the  Diatessaron  of  Tatian.  It 
was  not  "combined,"  or  interwoven,  but  had  the  four 
gospels,  it  would  seem,  in  four  parallel  columns. 


The  Great  Light  from  the  Vatican  69 

Of  Isho  'dad  of  Merv,  Prof.  Kendel  Harris 
tells  us  that  he  transferred  to  bis  pages 
"  some  of  the  most  astonishing  interpretations 
which  are  found  in  Ephraem's  commentary, 
and  gives  his  express  statement  of  his  depend- 
ence, in  these  peculiar  interpretations,  upon 
the  Syrian  father."  He  also  tells  us  that 
what  is  true  of  Isho  'dad  is  equally  true  of 
Bar  Salibi  and  Bar  Hebrseus,^  and  taking  one 
passage.  Matt.  2 :  23,  as  an  instance,  says  : — 

'•  Syriac  authors  steadily  quote,  and  some  of  them  ascribe 
to  Ephraem,  a  dubious  scholium  on  Matt.  2  :  23  "  (it  is  an 
explanation  given  by  Ephraem  of  the  words,  He  shall  be 
called  a  Nazarene),  "  and  this  scholium  is  actually  found  in 
the  Armenian  Commentary." 

Victor  of  Capua,  too,  had  Tatian's  Diates- 
saron  in  A.  D.  545.  A  century  earlier,  we  find 
Theodoret,  the  zealous  bishop  of  Cyrrhus,  very 
much  exercised  over  the  general  use  of  the 
Diatessaron  in  the  churches  of  his  diocese, 
and,  impressed  with  the  fact  that  Tatian  was 
a  heretic,  emplo3ang  very  energetic  measures 
to  keep  his  flock  from  using  it.  Writing  on 
Heresies,  453,  he  says,  "  I  myself  found  more 

'  Bar  Hebraeus  lived  eighty  or  ninety  years  after  Bar 
Salibi. 


70  New  Light  07i  the  New  Testament 

than  two  hundred  copies  in  reverential  use  in 
the  churches  of  our  district.  All  these  I  col- 
lected and  removed,  replacing  them  by  the 
gospels  of  the  four  Evangelists." 

About  a  century  before  tliis,  Ephraem,  "  the 
most  renowned  father  of  the  Eastern  Church," 
wrote  his  commentary,  a  translation  of  which 
from  Armenian  into  Latin  was  made  by  Moe- 
singer,  as  we  have  seen,  in  1876,  and  texts 
from  which,  published  by  Zahn  in  1881,  led  to 
the  examination  and  translation  of  the  Arabic 
manuscript  of  the  Diatessaron  in  the  Yatican 
library,  and  its  publication  by  Ciasca  in  time 
for  the  Pope's  jubilee  in  1888. 

Another  step  brings  us  to  Eusebius,  and 
though  he  does  not  seem  to  have  been  very 
familiar  with  the  Diatessaron^  as  was  natural, 
he  being  a  writer  in  Greek  and  that  being  in 
Syriac,  yet  he  speaks  of  it  distinctly  and  indi- 
cates clearly  his  knowledge  of  its  plan  and 
contents.     He  says  : — 

''  Tatian  having  put  together  a  certain  harmony  (^(juvdcpeiav) 
and  combination  (I  know  not  how)  of  the  gospels,  named 
this  the  Dia  Tessaron  "  ( Jw  Tedfrdpio'^).     (H.  E.  IV.  29.) 

Then,  when  we  go  back  through  a  century 
to  Hippolytus,  we  find  him  speaking  of  Tatian 
as  an  Encratite  and  Gnostic. 


The   Great  Light  from  the  Vatican  7 1 

When  we  go  still  farther  back  to  Iren^eus, 
the  teacher  of  Hippolytus,  we  find  him  speak- 
ing of  Tatian  in  the  same  way,  and  Irenseus 
was  his  contemporary  for  about  a  half  century, 
and  Hippolytus  was  probably  twenty  years 
old  when  Tatian  died. 

Now,  it  is  well  known  that  Irenseus  was  the 
devoted  pupil  of  Polycarp,  and  that  Polycarp 
was  the  disciple  of  John,  "  that  disciple  whom 
Jesus  loved,"  being  more  than  thirty  years  old 
when  John  died.^  Irenaeus  quotes  the  Gospel 
of  John  extensively,  and  Tatian  places  almost 
the  whole  of  it,  about  ninety-six  per  cent — a 
much  larger  proportion  than  would  have  been 
possible  in  the  case  of  any  of  the  other  gos- 
pels— in  the  Diatessaron.  This  settles  the 
much  talked  of  "  Johannean  problem,"  which 
must  now  retire  to  the  shades  of  that  limbo 
into  which  so  many  of  the  bloodless  phantoms 
of  the  Tubingen  School  have  disappeared. 

An  clement  of  importance  in  this  discussion 
is  the  answer  to  the  question  : — 


'  The  date  of  Poly(jarp'9  martyrdom  has  been  determined, 
with  a  high  degree  of  probability,  as  Februarj^  23d.  A.  D.  55, 
and  not  in  the  time  of  INIarcus  Aurelius,  as  has  long  been 
thought,  and,  indeed,  as  Eusebius  tells  ns.  The  reasons  for 
preferring  the  date  mentioned  cannot  be  given  here,  but  they 
are  now  quite  generally  accepted  as  conclusive. 


72  New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

Y.    When  Tatian  Composed  the  Diates- 

SAKON 

As  to  the  date  of  the  Diatessaron^  common 
sense  obliges  us  to  agree  with  Harnack  when 
he  says,  "  It  cannot  have  been  produced  during 
his  later  years,  for  all  traces  of  dualism  are 
absent." 

The  testimony  of  Irenseus  is  clear  as  to  the 
fact  that  Tatian,  his  contemporary  for  about 
fifty  years,  did  not  teach  "  his  peculiar  form  of 
doctrine  "  till  after  the  martyrdom  of  Justin. 

We  find  in  the  Diatessaron  all  those  narra- 
tives and  teachings  which  are  most  thoroughly 
out  of  keeping  with  the  Encratite  form  of 
asceticism,  giv^en  in  full.  Tatian  in  his  latter 
days  condemned  marriage  and  the  use  of 
wine ;  but  in  the  Diatessaron  the  account  of 
the  marriage  in  Cana  of  Galilee  and  the  turn- 
ing of  water  into  wine  is  faithfully  recorded, 
as  well  as  Luke  7 :  33,  34. 

Professor  Gildersleeve,  in  his  Introduction  to 
his  edition  of  Justin  Martyr's  Apologies,  gives 
preference  to  A.  D.  163  as  the  date  of  Justin's 
martyrdom. 

The  most  probable  time,  for  the  composition 
in  so  laborious,^  painstaking  and  reverent  a 

'  Glancing  down  a  page  of  the  Diatessaron,  we  see  all  four 
of  the  gospels  quoted  in  five  (5)  lines,  so  carefully  are  they 


The  Gr^eat  Light  from  the  Vatican  t3 

way,  of  this  harmony  of  the  four  gospels,  must 
have  been  before  Tatian  had  undergone  this 
change — before  the  simplicity  of  his  faith  had 
at  all  received  the  taint  of  that  Gnosticism 
which  was  so  rife  in  his  day.  The  motive  for 
such  a  work  was  probably  strongest  when  he 
first  came  to  know  the  gosjjels,  and  when  he  felt 
the  ardor  of  his  ''first  love^  The  most  prob- 
able date,  then,  is  soon  after  a.  d.  150. 

YI.    The  Diatessakon  as  a  Witness  of 
THE  Gospels 

{a)  It  shotvs  that  the  Apocryphal  Gosj)elSy 
so  called^  are  all  sjyurious. 

The  importance  of  this  may  not  be  ap- 
preciated by  all ;  but  those  who  have  been 
plied  with  assertions  that  there  are  many 
other  gospels  as  old  and  almost  as  good  as 
four,i  will  be  glad  of  the  ability  to  give  a 
ready  answer  ;  and  the  Diatessaron  furnishes 
that  answer  in  a  most  conclusive  form.  It 
contains  the  gospels  as  known  to  Tatian,  and 
he  a  man  of  the  widest  information,  born 
about  ten  years  after  the  Apostle  John  died. 


interwoven.     In  at  least  one  place,  all  the  four  gospels  are 
drawn  on  to  make  up  four  lines. 

^  This  is  one  of  the  commonest  of  all  cavils,  though,  as  we 
see,  entirely  baseless. 


74  New  Light  ,on  the  New   Testament 

knows  of  no  gospels  hut  those  of  Mattliew^ 
Marh^  Luke,  and  John.  He  evidently  lived 
before  any  ajpochryphal  gosjpel  was  written,  or 
certainly  before  any  such  writings  gained  any 
credence  in  the  Christian  Church.  The  very 
nsbine,  Diatessaro7i  (^««  Teffadpw^S) — through  four 
— implies  that  the  life  of  our  Lord  was  given 
through  four  gospels,  and  four  only. 

(h)  It  absolutely  overthrows  the  Tubingen 
theory  as  to  the  late  origin  of  our  four  gospels. 

As  we  have  seen,  Baur  dates  the  first  three 
gospels  from  130  to  160,  and  John  during  the 
decade  ending  a.  d.  lYO.  Since  the  discovery 
of  the  Diatessaron,  honest  followers  of  the 
Tubingen  School  have  acknowledged  that 
Baur's  position  was  utterly  untenable.  Renan 
acknowledges  that  the  four  gospels  are  not 
spurious.  Adolf  Ilarnack,  too,  admits  "  that 
we  learn  from  the  Diatessaron  that  about  A.  D. 
160,  our  four  gospels  had  already  taken  a 
place  of  prominence  in  the  Church,  and  that 
no  others  had  done  so,  that  in  particular,  the 
Fourth  Gospel  had  taken  a  place  alongside  the 
synoptics."  And,  also,  "that  as  regards  the 
text  of  the  gospels  we  can  conclude  from  the 
Diatessaron  that  the  text  of  our  gospels  about 
the  year  160  already  ran  essentially  as  we 
now   read    them "     (Harnack    as    quoted   in 


The  Great  Light  from  the  Vatican  75 

article  on  Tatian  in  Encyclopaedia  Britannica). 
But  the  Dlafessaron  proves  much  more  than 
this.  If  we  find  a  harmony  of  the  four 
gospels  prepared  as  early  as  160,  at  the  latest, 
we  may  conclude  that  these  gospels  had  been 
accepted  as  the  authoritative  records  of  our 
Saviour's  life,  long  before  this  time.  A 
harmony  of  the  gospels  would  not  naturally 
come  into  existence  immediately  on  the 
writing  of  the  gospels.  In  the  words  of 
Professor  Maher  {The  Mouthy  London,  Nov- 
ember, 1892),  "  If  Tatian,  knowing  the  whole 
Church  as  he  did,  devoted  himself  to  the  con- 
struction of  an  elaborate  harmonized  gospel 
narrative,  in  which  the  paragraphs,  texts  and 
fragments  of  texts  are  interwoven  with  the 
utmost  pains  and  ingenuity,  and  the  very 
greatest  care  directed  to  the  preservation  of 
even  the  smallest  words  of  our  four  gospels, 
it  can  only  be  because  these  four  gospels  and 
the  least  part  of  their  contents  had  before  this 
time  been  received  by  the  Church,  as  a  sacred 
deposit  of  divine  truth."  Now,  when  we 
think  of  the  fact  that  there  were  then  no 
steam  printing  presses,  no  railroads  for  rapid 
distribution,  and  no  general  councils  to  stamp 
them  as  authoritative,  we  must  conclude  that 
this   result,   of  a   general   acceptance   in  the 


76  New  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

different  districts,  of  all  the  four  gospels  as  a 
divine  record  of  Christ's  life,  must  have  re- 
quired a  period  of  many  years'  duration.  In 
the  words  of  the  same  writer,  "  The  Diatessaron 
proves  that,  in  the  minds  of  the  Christian 
world  of  that  day,  every  sentence  and  syllable, 
every  jot  and  tittle  of  these  gospels  possessed 
a  peculiar  sacredness.  Zahn's  conclusion, 
then,  cannot  be  very  far  from  the  truth,  '  In 
view  of  the  history  of  the  text,  opinions  as  to 
the  origin  of  John's  Gospel,  such  as  Baur  has 
expressed,  must  appear  simply  as  madness. 
It  follows,  further,  that  the  element  which  re- 
mains the  same  in  all  the  originals,  and  of  the 
versions  amid  all  the  variations  that  crept  into 
the  text  between  A.  D.  150  and  160,  must  have 
been  everywhere  read  at  the  beginning  of  the 
second  century.' " 

They  were  certainly  thus  read  as  soon  as 
the  Gospel  of  John  could  be  reproduced  by 
copyists  and  distributed. 

{c)  Confirms  the  testimony  of  L^encBiis  and 
Polycarp. 

Irenaeus  (a.  d.  200)  quotes  the  four  gospels 
as  fully  as  any  modern  orthodox  theologian 
would,  tells  us  plainly  that  there  were  four 
gospels,  and  only  four,  and  speaks  of  them  as 
"Holy   Scripture."     Now,  as  we  have   seen, 


The  Great  LiyJit  from  the  Vatican  77 

Tatian  was  the  con  temporary  of  Irenaeus  for 
about  fifty  years,  and  Irenseas  speaks  of  him 
at  some  length.  When  we  consider  that 
Tatian  was  the  contemporary  of  Poly  carp,  the 
teacher  of  Irenaeus,  for  more  than  forty  years, 
and  that  Poly  carp  was  a  pupil  of  the  Apostle 
John,  and  Ms  contemporary  for  more  than 
thirty  years,  and,  then,  that  this  Tatian  pre- 
pared a  harmony  of  the  four  gospels,  with 
that  of  John  most  prominent  of  all,  it  would 
seem  that  we  are  warranted  in  saying,  as  we 
have  done  above,  that  the  "  Johannean  prob- 
lem "  has  vanished,  and  that  the  apostolic  au- 
thority of  all  the  gospels  is  established. 

{d)  Confirms  the  testhnony  of  Justin 
Martyr. 

The  Diatessaron  makes  it  certain  that  the 

"  Memoirs  of  the  Apostles  "  {artoijyqiKv^ebiiara  Twv 

aizoGTokujv^  first  Apology,  67),  spoken  of  by 
Justin  Martyr,  as  read  in  the  worship  of  the 
Christians,  were  our  four  gospels,  and  not  any 
then  recent  record  of  verbal  traditions. 
Tatian  was  the  pupil  of  Justin,  and  made  this 
harmony  of  our  four  gospels,  and,  as  we  have 
seen,  in  all  probability,  composed  his  harmony 
in  the  lifetime  of  Justin.^     It  is  not  at  all  im- 

^  '*  Writers  in  question,  more  particular!}^,  Justin,  quoted, 
at  least  at  times,  not  from  our  separate  gospels,  but  from  a 


78  New  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

probable,  indeed,  that  he  did  it  under  his  super, 
vision  and  with  his  help.  Those  memorials  of 
the  Saviour's  life  which  Justin  recognized  as 
bearing  the  stamp  of  apostolic  authority,  and 
as  Holy  Scripture,  were  our  four  gospels. 

The  alternative  would  imply,  to  employ  a 
quotation  of  Prof.  Basil  Gildersleeve,  in  com- 
menting on  these  words  of  Justin  Martyr,  that 
*'  an  entire  change  of  gospels  was  made  through- 
out all  the  different  and  distant  provinces  of 
the  Eoman  Empire,  at  a  time  when  concerted 
action  through  general  councils  was  unknown, 
and  that,  too,  in  so  silent  a  manner  that  no 
record  of  it  remains  in  the  history  of  the 
Church." 

{e)  Confirms  the  testimony  of  the  ^'' New 
Syriac  GosijelsP 

I  was  at  first  led  to  believe  (and,  as  some 
may  know,  expressed  the  belief)  that,  in.  these 
gospels,  there  were  marks  of  manipulation  of 
the  account  of  the  nativity  of  our  Saviour  in 
Matt.  1 :  16,  21  and  25,  which  indicated  that 


harmony  of  the  gospels."— (/JentZeZ   Harris^  Diatessaron  of 
2\itian,  p.  54.) 

We  know  that  Tatian  AYrote  such  a  harmony.  That  was 
not  published  till  after  Justin's  death  ;  but  it  would  not  be 
impro])able  that  some  sort  of  rough  draft  might  have  been 
used  by  both  master  and  scholar  before  its  publication. " — 
Dr.   W.  Sunday,  Bampton  Lectures,  p.  301. 


The  Great  Light  from  the  Vatican  79 

this  Syriac  text  was  used  in  the  propagation 
of  the  Cerinthian  heresy ;  and  Cerinthus  was 
a  younger  contemporary  of  the  Apostle  John 
(See  Prof.  J.  llendell  Harris's  Art.  in  Contem- 
2)orary  Beview,  N^ovember,  1894).  This,  if 
true,  would  seem  to  show  that  the  four  gos- 
pels were  not  only  written,  but  already  gath- 
ered together,  recognized,  by  heretics  as  well 
as  the  orthodox,  as  the  authoritative  records 
of  Christianity,  and  then  translated  into 
Syriac ;  and  that,  in  the  lifetime  of  a  contem- 
porary of  the  Apostle  John.  The  Diatessaron 
adds  much  to  the  probability  that  Professor 
Harris's  conclusion  is  true,  so  far  as  the  age  of 
these  Syriac  gospels  is  concerned.  It  shows 
marks  of  the  Curetonian  Syriac  text,  and,  ac- 
cording to  Prof.  Harris,  this  is  a  revised  ver- 
sion of  the  "New  Syriac  Gospels "  in  the  in- 
terest of  orthodoxy.  It  would  seem,  then,  that 
these  Lewis  gospels^  or  Sinaiticpalimjysest,  were, 
so  to  speak,  two  generations  earlier  than  the 
Diatessaron,  and  that  they  must  have  been 
translated  near  the  beginning  of  the  second 
century. 

Mrs.  Lewis,  the  discoverer  of  the  SiiiaitiG 
palimpsest,  dissents  from  Dr.  Harris's  opinion 
that  the  version  was  Cerinthian  in  character, 
saying  that  "  some  of  the  most  eminent  schol- 


80  New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

ars  in  England,  France,  and  Germany,  includ- 
ing Dr.  Westcott,  have  pronounced  in  favor 
of  its  orthodoxy." 

However  this  point  may  be  decided,  there  is 
little  if  any  doubt  of  the  very  early  origin  of 
this  translation  of  the  four  gospels.  The  Dia- 
tessaron  is  good  evidence  on  this  point. 
Whether  the  Sinaitic  or  the  Curetonian  is  the 
earlier  Syriac  version,  may  be  left  to  the  crit- 
ics to  discuss,  and  if  they  can  do  so,  decide ; 
but  that  both  are  older  than  the  Diatessaron 
there  can  be  little  doubt,  as  peculiar  readings 
of  both  these  versions  are  found  in  it. 

The  Diatessaron^  then,  shows  that  both  these 
versions  must  have  been  made  early  in  the 
second  century ;  and  one  of  them  may  have 
been  made  before  it  began. 

The  only  alternative,  evidently,  is  that  a 
Syriac  version,  the  ancestor,  so  to  speak,  of 
both  of  these,  was  that  from  which  the  Diates- 
saron  was  composed,  and  for  the  settling  of 
the  toain  question,  the  genuineness  of  the  gos- 
pels, this  would  amount  to  the  same  thing.  It 
is  well  nigh  certain  that  both  these  versions 
precede  the  Diatessaron^  and  it  has  been  gen- 
erally thought  that  another  Syriac  version  pre- 
ceded them. 

The  Diatessaron  and  Sinaitic  palimpsest  both 


The  Great  Light  from  the  Vatican  81 

lack  the  account  of  the  woman  taken  in  adul- 
tery. This  is  a  characteristic  of  the  earliest 
texts.  But  the  Sinaitio  also  lacks  the  last 
chapter  of  Mark  after  the  eighth  verse,  while 
the  Diatessaron  has  it.  This  is  one  of  the 
many  signs  that  the  Sinaitic  is  earlier  than  the 
Diatessaron.  It  also  shows  that  the  Diates- 
saron drew  on  some  source  other  than  the 
Siniatio  (the  Curetonian  ?),  for  this  part  of  its 
text. 

CONCLUSION 

yil.  The  Diatessaron,  an  Independent 
Witness 
When  the  Diatessaron  is  spoken  of  as  con- 
firming the  testimony  of  so  many  other  wit- 
nesses, it  should  not  be  inferred  that  its  testi- 
mony is  in  any  sense  dependent  on  theirs. 
While  it  makes  clearer  and  more  conclusive 
the  testimony  which  each  of  them  gives,  its 
own  would  stand  unimpeachable,  even  on  the 
impossible  supposition  that  theirs  could  be 
refuted.  Among  all  these  witnesses  it  occu- 
pies a  unique  position.  It  is  the  only  copy  of 
the  gospels  of  that  early  time  that  is  'known  to 
have  come  from  the  pen  of  a  well-hioivn  histor- 
ical character.  It  is  as  certain  that  Tatian 
prepared  this  harmony  from  the  four  gospels 


82  Neio  Light  on  the  Neiv   Testament 

in  a  complete  form  as  any  fact  of  that  date 
can  be  to  us.  This,  of  course,  absolutely  fixes 
its  date  within  the  narrow  limits  of  a  very  few 
years  of  Tatian's  life.  Other  versions  were 
certainly  earlier,  at  least  the  one  from  which 
this  harmony  was  composed ;  but  the  age  of 
each  one  has  to  be  determined  by  internal 
marks.  The  age  of  this  is  settled  historically 
and  w^ithout  reference  to  those  internal  signs 
by  which  specialists  determine  the  date  of  texts. 

Pharos,  the  world's  wonder,  reared  its  mar- 
ble shaft  far  aloft,  and  threw  its  great  light 
over  all  the  approaches  to  Alexandria,  showing 
the  positions  of  other  landmarks  doubtless ; 
but  without  reference  to  them,  its  position  was 
well  known  to  all  the  world,  and  if  they  had 
been  swept  away,  it  would  still  have  served  its 
own  great  purpose. 

Thus,  we  see  the  Diatessaron — the  fourfold 
gospel — standing  about  a  half  century  after 
John  as  a  monumental  witness  of  the  genuine- 
ness of  the  gospels  which  furnish  those  facts 
that  are  the  foundation  of  our  faith — facts 
concerning  God's  merciful  intervention  to  save 
the  lost  through  Jesus  Christ,  v/hom  he  hath 
anointed  and  named  Jesus  becpaise  "  lie  shall 
save  his  people  from  their  sins  " — and  reveal- 
ing to  us,  so  to  speak,  the  locations  of  other 


The  Great  Light  from  the  Vatican  83 

beacons  still  nearer  the  shore  and  shining  with 
the  light  of  all  the  gospels. 

In  plain  words,  while  its  own  testimony  is 
clear  and  indubitable,  it  also  serves  to  empha- 
size and  confirm  that  of  the  contemporaries  of 
Tatian,  Iren^us,  Justin,  and  Polycarp,  and 
shows  us  that,  in  the  Syriac  version  or  versions 
from  which  it  was  composed,  the  Syrian  Chris- 
tians had  their  need  supplied  by  copies  of  the 
four  gospels,  complete  and  distinct,  made  still 
earlier. 

We  may  appeal  to  the  common  sense  of  all 
honest  men,  and  ask,  in  view  of  all  these  facts  : 

Is  it  credible  that  if  the  gospels  had  heen 
forgeries^  the  great  company  of  Syrian  Chris- 
tians would  have  received,  as  a  part  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures^  these  versions  made,  when 
there  were  still  living  thousands  of  Christians 
who  were  contemporaries  of  the  Apostle  John 
in  their  youth  f  The  improbability  is  too 
great  to  be  entertained  for  a  moment. 

The  only  rational  conclusion  is  that  the 
gospels  thus  early  received  as  authoritative, 
translated,  and  combined  into  a  harmony,  were 
so  received  and  prepared  for  use  because  they 
are  genuine — written  by  the  persons  whose 
names  they  have  borne  from  the  first;  and 
that  they  had  the  stamp  of  apostolic  approval. 


lY. 

THE   FULLER   LIGHT   FROM   MOUNT   SINAI 

At  Cambridge,  England,  there  live  two 
ladies  who  may  well  be  numbered  among  the 
heroines  of  our  times.  Distinguished  as  schol- 
ars at  one  of  the  world's  chief  centers  of  learn- 
ing, instrumental  in  securing,  by  their  munifi- 
cence, the  establishment  there  of  the  youngest 
of  its  sisterhood  of  colleges,  and  surrounded 
by  all  that  could  contribute  to  social  enjoy- 
ment and  the  pleasures  of  learned  ease,  they 
have  yet  endured  hardships  and  faced  dangers 
from  which  most  men  would  shrink,  to  accom- 
plish a  great  work  for  the  benefit  of  our  own 
and  succeeding  generations. 

In  recent  years  many  discoveries  have  been 
made  which  serve  to  throw  welcome  light  on 
that  most  interesting  of  all  books,  the  Bible ; 
but  few  of  these  surpass  in  interest  and  im- 
portance those  made  by  the  twin  sisters,  Mrs. 
Lewis  and  Mrs.  Gibson  of  Cambridge,  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1892.  Of  these  discoveries  the  most 
important  was  that  of  a  Syriac  manuscript 
84 


The  Fuller  Light  from  Mount  Sinai         85 

containing  the  four  gospels  ;  a  manuscript  more 
than  fourteen  centuries  old,  a  copy  of  a  Syriac 
version  made,  as  very  eminent  scholars  think, 
not  many  years  after  the  death  of  the  Apostle 
John.  The  manuscript  was  complete  with 
the  exception  of  a  few  of  the  vellum  leaves 
which  had  been  lost. 

It  is  interesting  to  notice  the  train  of  events 
which  led  these  ladies  to  make  their  journey 
to  Mount  Sinai. 

Prof.  Kendel  Harris  had  made  the  discovery 
of  the  long-lost  Ajyology  of  Aristides  in  the 
library  of  this  convent  in  1889.  He  was  led 
to  make  his  researches  in  that  place  by  the 
fact  that  the  indefatigable  efforts  of  Tischen- 
dorf  had  resulted  in  the  discovery  there,  in 
1859,  of  the  Sinaitic  Codex,  which  is  consid- 
ered by  many  scholars  the  very  oldest  copy  of 
the  Bible  in  existence,  not  excepting  even  the 
Vatican  Codex,  at  Rome. 

Tischendorf  had  seen  some  leaves  of  this 
celebrated  manuscript  in  a  wastebasket  in  the 
convent  in  1844 ;  and  now,  under  the  author- 
ity of  the  Czar  of  Eussia,  he  had  come  again 
to  make  an  exhaustive  search  for  the  re- 
mainder of  the  Codex  of  which  he  sa^v  that 
they  formed  a  part.  After  several  weeks  of 
fruitless  effort  he  was  about  to  depart.     He 


86  New  Light  on  the  Neiv  Teatament 

had  ordered  his  Bedawin  to  have  his  drome- 
daries ready  for  the  return  journey ;  when, 
taking  a  walk  in  the  evening  with  the  steward 
of  the  convent  among  the  surpassingly  inter- 
esting scenes  of  Sinai,  he  was  invited,  on  re- 
turning, to  take  tea  in  the  latter's  cell.  He 
had  been  speaking,  probably,  of  his  disappoint;- 
ment  in  not  finding  the  remainder  of  the  copy 
of  the  Septuagint,  a  fragment  of  which  he  had 
seen  in  the  wastebasket  fifteen  years  before, 
when  the  steward  casually  remarked  that  he 
too  had  been  interested  in  reading  the  Septua- 
gint lately,  and,  going  to  a  corner  of  the  cell 
brought  back  a  bulkly  volume  wrapped  in  a 
red  cloth,  and  laid  it  in  Tischendorf's  hands. 
The  scholar,  after  the  first  glance,  was  assured 
that  he  had  before  him  the  long-sought  treas- 
ure. Here  were  the  leaves  matching  those  he 
had  seen  on  his  former  visit,  and  containing  a 
large  part  of  the  rest  of  the  Old  Testament, 
together  with  the  New,  to  which  were  ap- 
pended the  Epistle  of  Barnabas  and  the  Shep- 
herd of  Her  mas. 

But,  Prof.  Eendel  Harris  was  not  the  only 
one  whose  zeal  for  discovery  was  awakened 
and  stimulated  by  Tischendorf's  success.  Mrs. 
Lewis  tells  us  that  in  early  girlhood,  the  desire 
came   upon   her    to    visit    this    old    convent, 


The  Fuller  Light  from  3Iount  Sinai        8T 

founded  by  Justinian  at  Mount  Sinai,  and  that 
when  many  years  afterwards,  the  Avay  was 
opened  for  her  to  go,  it  was  with  something 
like  assurance  that  some  important  discovery 
would  be  the  result. 

Mrs.  Lewis  and  her  sister,  Mrs.  Gibson, 
seem,  providentially,  to  have  received  a  train- 
ing, from  childhood  on,  by  which  they  were 
fitted  to  do  their  remarkable  work  for  the 
world.  The  children  of  a  wealthy  Scotch 
gentleman,  their  education  was  very  carefully 
conducted  by  competent  instructors  under  the 
direction  and  supervision  of  their  father. 
They,  probably,  early  exhibited  a  love  for  lan- 
guages, with  a  facility  in  acquiring  a  knowl- 
edge of  them  ;  and,  to  encourage  them  in  these 
pursuits,  as  soon  as  they  learned  a  language 
well,  they  were  allowed,  as  a  reward,  to  make 
a  journey,  and  spend  some  time  among  the 
people  who  spoke  it.  Thus  it  came  about, 
doubtless,  that  in  later  years  they  could  con- 
verse with  equal  ease,  with  ecclesiastics  who 
spoke  modern  Greek,  and  Bedawin,  whose 
talk,  during  their  many  camel  journeys  through 
the  desert,  was  in  Arabic. 

But  the  account  of  the  journey  to  Mount 
Sinai,  along  the  track  of  the  Exodus  of  Israel, 
^vould  better  be  told  in  Mrs.  Lewis's  own  words : 


88  Neic  Light  on  the  Neiv  Testament 

"  The  project  of  visiting  Sinai  came  first 
into  my  mind  in  early  girlhood,  when  my 
future  brother-in-law,  Mr.  James  Young  Gib- 
son, traveled  by  Sinai  and  Petra  to  Jerusalem 
in  1865,  and  his  glowing  descriptions  of  desert 
scenery  were  forever  haunting  my  memory. 
It  was  revived  after  a  very  successful  journey, 
which  my  sister  and  I  made  through  Greece 
in  1883.  The  hospitality  which  we  had  re- 
ceived from  Greek  monks,  and  the  pleasant 
intercourse  which  we  had  enjoyed  with  Greek 
ecclesiastics,  emboldened  us  to  think  that  a 
visit  to  the  Sinai  Convent  would  be  profitable, 
and  that  perhaps  our  knowledge  of  Arabic 
might  facilitate  our  intercourse  with  the  Bed- 
awin  who  would  escort  us  thither.  I  made  an 
attempt  to  carry  out  this  design  in  1886,  but  I 
got  no  farther  than  '  Uyun  Musa,  being  de- 
terred by  apprehensions  about  the  health  of  a 
lady  friend  who  was  traveling  with  me.' 

"  After  my  marriage  in  1887  to  the  Eev. 
Samuel  Savage  Lewis,  of  Corpus  Christi  Col- 
lege, Cambridge,  we  made  several  Oriental 
journeys  together ;  but  I  had  to  relinquish  all 
thoughts  of  Sinai,  as  my  husband  was  bound 
to  residence  in  his  college  during  February, 
the  only  season  of  the  year  when  a  desert 
journey  is  compatible  with  health." 


The  Fuller  Lifjht  from   Mount  Sinai        89 

Mr.  Lewis  died  suddenly  in  1891,  and  Mr. 
James  Y.  Gibson,  the  husband  of  her  sister 
had  died  also.  In  the  summer  of  this  year  the 
Syriac  text  of  Professor  Harris's  then  new  dis- 
covery,  the  Ajjology  of  Aristides,  was  pub- 
lished. Mrs.  Lewis  became  much  interested 
in  this  defense  of  the  early  Christians,  which, 
Eusebius  informs  us,  the  Greek  philosopher, 
Aristides,  who  had  become  a  Christian,  pre- 
sented to  the  Emperor,  Hadrian,  when  he 
came  to  Athens  to  be  initiated  in  the  Eleusin- 
ian  Mysteries  in  the  eighth  year  of  his  reign, 
i.  e.,  in  12-1  or  125  of  our  era.  She  gave  her- 
self to  earnest  study  of  the  Syriac,  especially 
in  the  ancient  Estrangelo  character,  which  her 
knowledge  of  Hebrew  and  Arabic,  both  lan- 
guages of  the  same  family,  made  quite  easy. 
Eev.  K.  H.  Kennett  of  Queen's  College  was 
her  instructor. 

Meeting  with  the  wife  of  Professor  Harris 
with  whom  she  had  been  very  slightly  ac- 
quainted before  this,  she  told  her  that  she  was 
busily  engaged  in  the  study  of  the  Apology  in 
the  Syriac,  and  that  she  intended  to  go  to 
Mount  Sinai.  Dr.  Harris  immediately  called 
and  taught  the  sisters  to  photograph  with  his 
own  camera  to  prepare  them  for  their  work 
there,   and,  to  use  Mrs.  Lewis's  words,  ''ex- 


90  New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

pressed  >the  opinion  so  decidedly  that  there 
were  treasures  in  the  convent  which  he  had 
not  thoroughly  examined,  that  we  both  looked 
forward  to  our  journey  with  the  brightest  ex- 
pectations. For  several  weeks  I  dreamed  of 
the  dark  closet  so  vividly  described  to  me  by 
Dr.  Harris,  in  which  lay  the  two  mysterious 
chests  full  of  manuscripts,  and  to  which  access 
was  only  to  be  obtained  by  propitiating  the 
reverend  recluses  who  owned  them.  So 
strongly  were  we  impressed  with  the  idea  that 
we  were  going  to  discover  something,  that  the 
night  before  our  departure  when  the  Master  of 
Corpus  (Dr.  Perowne)  and  Mr.  Kennett  both 
called  to  say  farewell,  they  actually  speculated 
on  what  the  discovery  was  to  be;  and  Mr. 
Kennett  expressed  a  hope  that  it  might  be  the 
Harmony  of  the  Four  Gospels  (or  Diatessaron) 
written  by  Tatian  in  the  second  century." 
[The  epoch-making  discovery  of  this  remark- 
able work  in  an  Arabic  translation  had  been 
made  in  the  Yatican  Library  a  few  years  be- 
fore this.  The  hope  was  that  the  original 
Syriac  might  be  found.]  Several  Oriental 
scholars  were  invited  to  accompany  Mrs.  Lewis 
and  her  sister,  Mrs.  Gibson  to  Mount  Sinai,  but 
all  efforts  in  this  direction  having  failed,  the 
two  sisters  braved  the  journey  without  them. 


The  Fuller  Light  from  Blount  Sinai        91 

Dr.  Rendel  Harris,  however,  though  unable  to 
go  with  them  at  this  time,  did  much  to  pre- 
pare for  and  further  their  success.  Says  Mrs. 
Lewis :  "  Dr.  Harris  very  kindly  ordered  a 
half-plate  camera  for  us  with  all  its  appurte- 
nances, and  also  designed  a  manuscript  stand 
for  our  use  to  obviate  some  of  the  difficulties 
which  he  had  experienced." 

The  journey  was  by  way  of  Cairo,  and  an 
introduction  to  the  patriarch  of  Alexandria 
secured  one  from  him,  or  rather,  from  his 
representative  (he  himself  being  absent),  to 
the  Archbishop  of  Mount  Sinai,  who  received 
them  most  kindly.  This  insured  their  favor- 
able reception  at  the  St.  Catherine  Convent  on 
Mount  Sinai;  which  is  thus  described,  after 
mention  of  incidents  of  the  journey  : — 

*'Next  day  we  climbed  the  pass  of  Kug 
Hawa  on  foot,  followed  by  our  dromedaries. 
Soon  the  peak  of  Eas  Sufsafeh  burst  on  our 
view,  and  we  stood  on  the  great  plain  of  Er- 
Rahah,  just  before  the  mountain  which  burned 
with  fire,  where  the  voice  of  God  Vv^as  heard 
in  thunder  by  the  multitude  beneath.  At 
length,  the  convent  appeared  in  view,  nestling 
in  a  narrow  valley,  surrounded  by  a  walled 
garden,  and  overlooked  on  the  one  hand  by  the 
cliifs  of  Jebel  Mousa,  and  on  the  other,  by  a 


92  New  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

mountain  named  after  two  Greek  saints, 
Galakteon  and  Episteme. 

"  While  our  tents  were  being  pitched  beside 
a  well  of  delicious  water,  amid  the  cypresses, 
olives,  and  flowering  almond  trees  of  the  gar- 
den, we  were  received  b}^  the  Hegoumenos,  or 
prior,  and  by  Galakteon,  the  librarian,  whose 
eyes  sparkled  with  sincere  pleasure  when  he 
read  our  letter  to  himself  from  Mr.  Eendel 
Harris,  '  The  world  is  not  so  large  a.fter  all,' 
he  exclaimed,  '  when  we  can  have  real  friends 
in  such  distant  lands.' " 

This  aged  and  amiable  librarian  gave  them 
not  only  the  fullest  liberty  to  examine  the 
treasures  of  which  he  was  the  custodian,  but 
all  possible  personal  assistance.  "On  Monday, 
February  8th,"  Mrs.  Lewis  continues,  "  we 
worked  for  seven  hours  in  the  library,  begin- 
ning at  9  A.  M.  The  manuscripts  were  very 
much  scattered,  some  Greek  ones  being  in  the 
show  library,  and  the  Arabic  partly  there, 
and  partly  in  a  little  room  halfway  up  a  dark 
stair. 

"  The  Syriac  ones,  and  those  supposed  to  be 
the  most  ancient,  are  partly  in  this  room,  and 
partly  in  a  dark  closet  approached  through  a 
room  almost  as  dark.  There  they  repose  in 
two  closed  boxes,  and  cannot  be  seen  without 


The  Fuller  Light  from  3Iount  Sinai         93 

a  lighted  candle.  They  have,  at  different 
times,  been  stored  in  vaults  beneath  the  con- 
vent for  safety,  when  attacks  were  threatened 
by  the  Bedawin. 

"  They  were  there  exposed  to  damp  and 
then  allowed  to  dry  without  any  care.  It  is  a 
wonder  that  the  strong  parchment  and  clearly 
written  letters  have,  in  so  many  cases,  with- 
stood so  many  adverse  influences. 

"  Galakteon  gave  us  every  facility  for  pho- 
tographing. He  spent  hours  holding  books 
open  for  us,  or  deciphering  pages  of  the  Sep- 
tuagint.  The  fact  that  the  English  should 
be  so  anxious  for  a  correct  version  of  the 
sacred  writings  as  to  have  sheets  of  paper 
printed  on  purpose  for  scholars  to  collate  thens. 
with  all  the  extant  manuscripts,  filled  the 
monks  with  a  profound  respect.  The  only 
drawback  to  our  comfort  was  the  bitterly 
cold  wind.  As  there  was  no  glass  in  the 
library  windows,  we  had  some  difficulty  in 
keeping  ourselves  warm.  This  we  could  only 
do  by  a  smart  walk  out  of  the  narrow  wady." 

It  was  among  these  ill-kept  manuscripts  on 
vellum  that  the  one  now  known  as  The  Sina- 
itic  or  Lewis  ])alimi:)sest^  was  found.  As  we 
shall  see  farther  on,  Mrs.  Lewis  thinks,  that 
owing  to  a  more  recent  discovery  connected 


94  New  Light  on  the  Neiv   Testament 

with  its  history,  it  should  be  renamed,  The 
Antiochene  2:)aU77i2?sest. 

She  teJls  us,  "I  had  never  before  seen  a 
palimpsest,  but  my  father  had  often  related  to 
us  wonderful  stories  of  how  the  old  monks, 
when  vellum  had  become  scarce  and  paper  was 
not  yet  invented,  scraped  away  the  writing 
from  the  pages  of  their  books  and  wrote 
something  new  on  the  top  of  it;  and  how 
after  the  lapse  of  ages,  the  old  ink  was  revived 
by  the  action  of  the  common  air,  and  the  old 
words  peeped  up  again ;  and  hoAV  a  text  of 
Plato  had  come  to  light  in  this  curious  way." 

Among  other  manuscripts  they  found  one  of 
538  pages,  a  palimpsest,  written  in  Syriac. 
Many  of  its  leaves  were  glued  together,  and 
some  had  to  be  separated  by  the  woman-like 
expedient  of  holding  them  over  the  steam  of  a 
teakettle.  The  eyes  of  these  sisters  were 
probably  the  first  that  had  looked  on  these  old 
characters,  one  set  of  them  almost  hidden  be- 
hind another,  for  many  centuries.  Says  Mrs. 
Lewis  : — 

"I  saw  at  once  that  this  manuscript  con- 
tained two  writings,  both  in  the  same  ancient 
Estrangelo  character,  which  I  had  been  study- 
ing; that  the  upper  writing  was  the  biograph- 
ies of   women  saints,  and  bore  its  own  date, 


The  Fuller  Light  from  Mount  Sinai        95 

\Yliich  I  read,  1,009  years  after  Alexander,  A. 
D.  697  ;  and  that  the  underwriting  was  the 
gospels.  The  latter  was  written  in  two  col- 
umns, one  of  which  always  projected  onto  the 
margin  of  the  upper  writing,  so  that  many  of  its 
words  could  be  easily  read,  and  every  word 
distinctly  belonged  to  the  sacred  narrative.  I 
pointed  this  out  to  my  sister,  and,  as  if  to 
make  assurance  doubly  sure,  I  showed  her  also 
that  at  the  top  of  almost  every  page  stood  the 
title  'Evangelium,  of  Matthew,  of  Mark,'  or 
'of  Luke.'  I  felt  sure  that  this  text  of  the 
gospels  must  be  at  least  200  years  older  than 
the  one  w^hich  superseded  (or  sat  upon)  it,  and 
could  not  therefore  be  later  than  the  fifth 
century.     .     .     . 

"  My  reasons  for  placing  a  high  value  on  the 
palimpsest  were  noted  down  in  my  journal, 
under  date  of  February  11th,  and  were  after- 
wards embodied  in  an  account  of  our  journey 
which  w^as  printed  for  The  Preshyterian 
Churchman  of  June,  July,  and  August,  before 
we  had  asked  any  of  our  friends  to  examine 
the  gospel  text." 

It  is  amusing  to  learn  from  Mrs.  Lewis's  ac- 
count, of  how  trivial  a  possibility  was  dreaded 
which  might  destroy  all  the  fruits  of  their 
photographic    labors.     That   dread   was   that 


96  New  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

the  customs  officials  might  mistake  the  rolled 
films  containing  their  photographs  for  rolls  of 
tobacco  and  should  let  in  the  light  and  destroy 
them.     This,  happily,  did  not  occur. 

Though  Mrs.  Lewis  understood  that  the  dis- 
covery was  one  of  great  importance,  it  was 
many  months  before  even  she  came  to  under- 
stand how  very  important  it  was,  and  what  a 
place  it  was  soon  to  take  among  the  irrefraga- 
ble testimonies  to  the  genuineness  of  the  four 
gospels.  A  severe  illness  which  Mrs.  Gibson 
suffered  after  the  return  of  the  sisters  to  their 
home  in  Cambridge  delayed  the  critical  exam- 
ination of  the  manuscript  for  a  considerable 
time.  On  July  15th  of  the  year  of  the  dis- 
covery, 1892,  they  invited  a  company  of  friends 
to  luncheon  and,  before  the  departure  of  Mr. 
and  Mrs.  F.  C.  Burkitt,  who  were  among 
them,  brought  some  of  the  photographs  and 
spread  them  on  the  piano  for  the  inspection  of 
the  young  Syriac  scholar.  Mrs.  Lewis  told 
him  that  the  underwriting  was  Syriac  Gospels, 
and  hoped  that  he  might  be  able  "  with  his 
keen  young  eyes  "  to  decipher  them.  He  be- 
came deeply  interested  and  asked  her  permis- 
sion to  take  about  a  dozen  of  the  photographs 
home  with  him  for  careful  examination.  She 
readily  assented  to  this  request,  and,  on  the 


The  Fuller  Light  from  Mount  Sinai         9Y 

second  day  after  this,  received  from  Mrs.  Bur- 
kitt  the  following  note : — 

"12  Harvey  Road. 
"My  Dear  Mrs.  Lewis: — Frank  is  in  a  state  of  the 
highest  excitement.  He  wrote  down  a  part  of  the  palimp- 
sest last  night,  and  has  been  in  to  Dr.  Bensley's  with  it,  and 
they  have  discovered  it  is  a  part  of  the  Cureton  Syriac.  Do 
you  know,  only  one  copy  exists!  You  can  imagine  Frank's 
glee!  He  has  just  been  in  to  tell  me,  and  run  back  to  the 
Bensleys'.  I  thought  you  would  be  interested  and  write  at 
once.  I  am  yours  affectionately, 

A.  Persis  Burkitt." 

On  the  day  after  the  receipt  of  the  note  a 
meeting  of  those  most  interested  in  the  dis- 
covery was  held  at  the  house  of  Professor 
Bensley,  and  as  it  was  clear  that  the  manu- 
script could  not  be  fully  and  accurately  copied 
except  from  the  original  at  Mount  Sinai,  a 
second  expedition  was  decided  on  for  the  ac- 
complishment of  that  purpose.  Prof.  Kendel 
Harris  was  invited  by  the  sisters  to  accom- 
pany them,  together  with  Professor  Bensley 
and  Mr.  F.  C.  Burkitt  and  their  wives.  The 
party  rendezvoused  at  Suez  on  June  27th  and 
proceeded  to  their  destination,  the  convent  of 
St.  Catherine,  where  they  w^ere  most  cordially 
received  by  the  monks. 

"  The  next  morning,"  says  Mrs.  Lewis,  "  Ga- 
lakteon  tottered  into  what  was  called  the  arch- 


98  New  Light  on  the  Neio   Testament 

bishop's  room,  where  the  Sjriac  books  were 
kept,  and  asked  what  we  wished  to  see  first," 
The  reply,  of  course  was,  *'all  the  books 
photographed  last  year."  The  Palestinian 
Lectionary  which  has  since  been  edited  and 
published  by  Mrs.  Lewis  in  a  very  elaborate 
and  elegant  form,  was  intrusted  to  her  that 
she  might  work  on  it  in  her  tent,  and  the 
palimpsest  was  divided  between  the  three  gen- 
tlemen for  decipherment  and  transcription  so 
far  as  this  very  difiicult  task  might  prove  pos- 
sible. 

While  the  discovery  of  the  palimpsest  has 
given  Mrs.  Lewis  celebrity  among  scholars  the 
world  over,  her  edition  of  the  Lectionary,  has 
obtained  for  her  the  honorary  degree  of  Doc- 
tor of  Philosophy  from  the  united  faculty  of 
Halle- A¥ittenberg,  and  the  name  of  her  sister, 
Mrs.  Gibson,  was  honorably  mentioned  in  her 
diploma. 

Many  readers  may  not  be  able  to  understand 
wh}^  Mr.  Burkitt  should  have  been  excited  by 
his  supposed  discover}^  that  the  palimpsest  was 
a  copy  of  the  Cureton  Syriac  manuscript  of 
the  gospels.  It  was  not  simply  because  there 
was  but  one  copy  of  this  fragmentary^  manu- 
script of  the  gospels  which  was  brought  by 
Archdeacon  Tattam  from  the  Nitrian  desert 


The  Fuller  Light  from  Mount  Sinai         99 

and  deposited  with  others  which  he  brought 
\vith  it  in  the  British  Museum  in  18i2,  but  be- 
cause Canon  Cureton  who  discovered  its  char- 
acteristics and  published  it  in  1858,  had  come 
■  to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  the  oldest  manu- 
script of  the  gospels  in  Syriac  discovered  up 
to  that  time.  The  fact  that  it  was  fragmentary 
\vould  make  the  discovery  of  a  second  copy  of 
greater  importance  from  the  fact  that  passages 
missing  in  the  first  copy  might  be  supplied 
from  the  second.  The  Cureton  manuscript 
had,  for  instance,  only  a  few  verses  of  the 
Gospel  of  Mark,  and  another  copy  might  con- 
tain all  of  that  gospel. 

The  scholars  had  not  worked  long  at  their 
task  when  they  found  that  though  the  text  be- 
fore them  had  points  of  likeness  to  that  of  the 
Cureton  manuscript,  it  was  not  a  second  copy 
of  the  same.  Mrs.  Lewis  says:  "It  was  of 
the  same  character,  but  more  concise,  and  ap- 
parently more  ancient  by  half  a  century." 

She  also  says  :  ''  Mr.  Harris  pronounced  it 
to  be  by  no  means  a  difficult  palimpsest,  but 
the  pages  varied  greatly  in  distinctness,  and 
though  even  I  could  trace  the  words,  being  of 
their  natural  size,  as  I  could  not  do  in  my 
photographs,  there  were  many  from  which  the 
ink   of   the   underwriting   had  faded  leaving 


100         New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

only  faint  indications  on  the  vellum  from 
which  words  could  be  traced.  Add  to  this 
that  many  of  these  words  were  covered  by 
the  dark  upperwriting  which  was,  happily,  of 
a  different  color,  and  that  most  of  it  had  to  be 
read  between  the  lines,  and  my  readers  may 
appreciate  the  difficulty  of  the  task  which  was 
to  be  undertaken." 

Before  going  to  Mount  Sinai  the  second  time 
Mrs.  Lewis  procured  four  bottles  of  a  chemical 
compound  which  u^as  of  great  use  in  this  diffi- 
cult Avork  of  deciphering  the  manuscripts. 
She  did  not  at  first  use  it.  "  For  ten  days," 
says  she,  *'I  had  to.  restrain  my  impatience 
about  using  this ;  but  on  the  eleventh,  I  hap- 
pened to  open  a  large  volume  of  Mar  Isaac's 
discourses,  which  I  had  known  on  our  former 
visit,  and  which  contained  many  passages  so 
faded  as  to  be  quite  illegible.  I  asked  Galak- 
teon  to  let  me  restore  one  of  these,  with  the 
result  that  it  came  up  of  a  brilliant  hue  of  dark 
green,  and  he  was  so  astonished  that  he  asked 
me  to  paint  up  the  whole  volume  and  then  to 
try  my  '  scent-bottle,'  as  it  was  called,  on  other 
hoary  documents. 

''  How  triumphant  I  felt  when  he  gave  me 
permission  to  touch  up  the  palimpsest,  though 
only  in  a  few  places  where  it  could  not  be  read 


The  Fuller  Light  from  Mount  Sinai       101 

otherwise !  Professor  Bensley  at  first  disap- 
proved of  the  proceeding,  but  as  both  his 
fellow- workers  gave  my  brush  the  warmest 
welcome,  he  was  induced,  after  a  few  days  to 
ask  for  it  himself,  and  many  a  blank  margin 
thus  became  covered  with  very  distinct  w^rit- 
ing." 

Forty  days  of  hard  work  w^ere  spent  by  the 
indefatigable  scholars  in  research  among  the 
treasures  of  the  convent,  in  deciphering  and 
transcribing.  But  though  very  laborious  days, 
they  must  have  been  very  happy  ones.  The 
joy  of  discovery,  the  gratification  of  finding, 
day  by  day,  increasing  proof  of  the  inestima- 
ble value  of  the  chief  treasure  which  had  been 
brought  to  light,  the  reflex  energies  normally 
employed, — in  this  case,  the  highest  energies  of 
noble  minds, — the  daily  intercourse  in  work 
and  rest,  and  above  all,  the  wonderful  sur- 
roundings ;  scenes  of  the  exquisite  beauty  of 
subtropical  foliage,  set  off  by  the  grandeur  of 
those  bare  rocky  heights,  sublime,  solitary, 
awe-inspiring,  from  which  God  once  vouch- 
safed the  most  august  revelation  which  the 
human  race  has  ever  received,  must  have  filled 
those  da\^s  of  strenuous  toil  with  a  unique  in- 
terest and  inspiration.  The  time  must  have 
been    happily    spent    as   it    passed    and    will. 


102         New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

doubtless,  be  a  bright  spot  in  the  memories  of 
those  who  had  the  privilege  of  taking  part  in 
this  great  work.  Yet,  as  is  often  the  case  in 
our  experience,  the  memories  of  this  happy 
period  will  always  be  chastened  by  the  recol- 
lection of  sorrow.  Professor  Bensley  fell  sick 
in  Rome,  on  the  return  journey,  and  died  three 
days  after  reaching  his  home  at  Cambridge, 
and,  a  few  weeks  later,  the  old  librarian  Ga- 
lakteon,  who  had  done  so  much  to  forward  tiie 
plans  of  his  European  friends,  was  gathered  to 
his  fathers,  "  as  a  shock  of  corn  cometh  in  in 
his  season." 

After  all  the  learned  labor  expended  by  the 
distinguished  scholars  at  Mount  Sinai,  many 
passages  were  left  undeciphered,  and  others 
were  subjects  of  conjecture  rather  than  of  cer- 
tain knowledge.  This  being  the  case,  Mrs. 
Lewis  and  Mrs.  Gibson  made  a  third  journey 
to  the  scene  of  the  discovery  in  January,  1895. 

The  Archbishop  of  Mount  Sinai,  Porphyrios, 
offered  them  every  facility  for  investigating, 
but  when  they  asked  for  the  palimpsest,  the 
new  librarian  after  a  vain  search,  informed 
them  that  it  was  not  to  be  found  in  the  library. 
This  was  surprising,  because  Mrs.  Lewis  had 
provided  a  handsome  box  for  the  manuscript 
that  it  might  be  preserved  from  injury  in  the 


Tin:  Fuller  Light  from  Blount  Sinai       103 

future,  and  Mrs.  Bensley  had  prepared  a  silk 
cover  for  it  with  the  same  design.  It  was 
known  to  the  sisters  that  some  pages  of  other 
manuscripts  had  been  stolen  from  the  convent, 
and  it  now  looked  as  if  the  palimpsest  of  the 
gospels  might  have  met  a  similar  fate.  We 
can  well  believe  that,  as  Mrs.  Lewis  says,  they 
had  "  a  bad  quarter  of  an  hour."  But  in  the 
midst  of  their  dismay,  Euthumios,  the  suc- 
cessor of  Galakteon,  was  seen  approaching 
with  the  manuscript  enveloped  in  its  silk 
cover,  and  their  anxiety  was  immediately 
turned  into  joy.  During  this  visit,  and  an- 
other which  the  sisters  made  to  the  convent 
in  1897,  the  palimpsest  was  examined  with  the 
greatest  care,  and  many  of  the  gaps  in  the  first 
transcription  were  filled.  Many  of  the  former 
readings  were  satisfactorily  verified,  while  in 
some  cases,  corrections  were  made. 

A  New  Discovery 

By  the  almost  incredible  labor  which  had 
now  been  bestowed  on  this  most  interesting 
copy  of  the  gospels,  it  would  seem  that  it  must 
have  been  made  to  yield  all  its  secrets  to  the 
learned  investigators.  Strange  as  it  may 
seem,  however,  all  these  examinations  of  the 
original  manuscript  failed  to  bring  to  light  an 


104         New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

important  fact  in  the  history  of  the  palimpsest 
winch  has  been  made  known  by  the  photo- 
graphs of  its  last  two  pages.  This  fact  is  that 
it  was  not  made  a  palimpsest  at  Sinai,  but  at 
Antioch,  where  "  the  disciples  were  first  called 
Christians."  ^ 

For  a  full  description  of  the  palimpsest  and 
its  peculiar  features  we  may  go  to  the  series 
of  articles  now  passing  through  The  Exjjository 
Times  on  "  What  have  we  gained  in  the 
Sinaitic  Palimpsest."  The  palimpsest  itself 
is,  also,  accessible  to  the  English  readers  in  a 
translation  made  by  the  discoverer.^ 

As  to  the  palimpsest's  testimon}^  for  the 
gospels,  it  is  only  necessary  to  mention  a  few 
facts,  to  see. 

One  of  these  is  that  it  contains  our  four 
gospels,  and  no  others,  indicating  that  the  so- 
called  Apocryphal  Gospels^  were  unknown,  or 
at  least,  unacknowledged  as  having  any  au- 
thority, when  this  translation  was  made. 


^  For  an  account  of  this  remarkable  discovery  as  to  the 
place  where  the  four  gospels  were  turned  into  a  palimpsest 
by  writing  over  them  the  lives  of  women  saints  by  "John, 
the  Recluse,"  see  the  article,  The  earlier  Home  of  the  Sinaitic 
Palimpsest,!  in  The  Expositor  for  June,  1900. 

2  For  a  fuller  account  of  the  discovery  of  the  palimpsest 
and  of  the  journey  to  Mount  Sinai  the  reader  is  referred  to 
Mrs.  Gibson's  "How  the  Codex  was  Found,"  and  Mrs. 
Lewis's,  "In  the  Shadow  of  Sinai." 


The  Fuller  Light  from  Mount  Sinai       105 

Another  is,  that  it  must  have  been  made 
very  early.  The  Diatessaron^  a  harmony  of 
the  four  gospels,  prepared  by  Tatian,  probably 
in  the  decade  150-160  is  found  to  contain  a 
number  of  readings,  or  turns  of  expression, 
found  only  in  this  Sinaitic  Palimpsest^  indi- 
cating that  this  version  (or  else  one  from 
which  it  was,  in  part,  copied),  must  have  been 
in  existence  before  the  Diatessaro7i. 

This  version  is  a  translation  of  the  whole  of 
the  four  gospels^  and  the  text  has  marked 
characteristics  of  the  earliest  Greek  manu- 
scripts :  "  a  text,"  as  Professor*  Harris,  in  his 
able  article  in  The  Contemporary^  November, 
1894,  remarks,  "  that  often  agrees  with  all  that 
is  most  ancient  in  Greek  manuscripts,  a  text 
which  the  advanced  critic  will  at  once  ac- 
knowledge to  be,  after  allowance  has  been 
made  for  a  few  serious  blemishes,  superior  in 
quality  to  all  extant  copies,  with  a  very  few 
exceptions."  These  "serious  blemishes,"  as 
he  considers  them,  are  all  found  in  three 
verses  of  the  first  chapter  of  Matthew. 

This  shows  that  the  theory  of  the  gradual 
evolution  of  the  gospels  is  a  dream. 

Another  fact  to  be  considered  is  that  this  is 
a  translation^  implying  an  original  from  which 
it    was     translated,    existing    therefore    still 


106         Neio  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

earlier  than  this  version  which  Professor 
Harris  concludes  "  must  have  been  made  far 
back  in  the  second  century." 

It  is  interesting  in  this  connection,  to 
notice  that  Prof.  Adolf  Harnack  of  Berlin, 
though  viewing  the  question  from  his  far- 
from-orthodox  standpoint,  has  at  last  ac- 
knowledged the  force  of  the  accumulating 
evidence  that  all  the  gospels  were  written 
within  the  first  century.  Kecent  discoveries 
have  forced  him  to  this  conclusion ;  and,  after 
mentioning  the  Apology  of  Aristides  and  The 
Diatessaron  of  Tatian,  he  says : — 

"But  of  still  greater  value  was  the  find 
which  we  owe  to  a  learned  Scotch  lady,  Mrs. 
Lewis.     ... 

"As  the  text  is  almost  completely  preserved 
this  Syrus  Sinaiticus  is  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant witnesses  ;  nay  it  is  extremely  probable 
that  it  is  the  most  important  witness,  for 
our  gospels  "  (see  his  article  in  Preiissische 
Jahrhucher,  May,  1898). 

Standing,  like  Harnack,  in  the  van  of 
German  scholarship.  Prof.  Theodor  Zahn  of 
Erlangen  has  given  his  conclusions  as  to 
the  dates  of  the  gospels,  respectively,  as 
follows : — 

Matthew,   in  Aramaic,  62 ;    in   Greek,  85  ; 


The  Fuller  Light  from  Mount  Sinai       107 

Mark  (prepared)  64 ;  Mark  (published)  67  ; 
Luke  75  ;  John  80-90.  Harnack's  dates  are 
Mark,  65-70  ;  Matthew,  70-75  ;  Luke  78-90  ; 
John,  "  not  later  than  the  beginning  of  the 
second  century."  ^ 

Thus,  the  two  most  noted  New  Testament 
scholars  in  Germany,  the  leaders  of  the  two 
opposing  scholars  of  criticism,  have  by  inde- 
pendent researches  from  different  standpoints, 
been  brought  to  almost  identical  conclusions 
as  to  the  dates  of  the  gospels  ;  dates  not  in- 
consistent with  the  authorship  of  contem- 
poraries of  Christ.  Harnack,  brought,  or,  I 
may  say,  forced,  to  this  conclusion  by  the  ex- 
ternal evidence  of  recent  discoveries,  finds  it 
confirmed  by  the  internal  evidence  of  the 
documents  themselves,  and  says : — 

"In  their  essential  substance,  the  gospels 
belong  to  the  first,  the  Jewish,  aspect  of 
Christianity,  that  brief  epoch  which  may  be 
denoted  as  the  palaeontological." 

The  views  of  such  critics  as  Abbott  and 
Schmiedel  published  in  the  Encyclopaedia  Bib- 

^  Blass  thinks  that  Luke  wrote  his  gospel  during  the  im- 
prisonment of  Paul  at  Ca3sarea  A.  D.  54-56,  according  to  liis 
reckoning,  57-59  according  to  that  of  Ramsay.  See  The 
Homiletic  Review,  December,  1900.  "Pauline  Chronology,'' 
by  W.  M.  Ramsay,  and  The  Churchman  (London)  "The 
Western  Text  of  St.  Luke  ''  by  W.  Harloe  Dundas. 


108         New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

lica  are  clue  to  vision  distorted  and  judgment 
warped  by  the  prepossessions  of  their  own 
miiids.  Of  the  attack  of  these  critics  and 
others  like  them,  Canon  Gore  (now  Bishop  of 
Worcester),  himself  a  higher  critic,  well  re- 
marks :  "  Now,  it  is  easy  to  magnify  the  im- 
portance of  the  movement,  and  even  to  over- 
estimate its  men.  It  has  no  discovery  in  early 
Christian  literature  to  start  from.  The  great 
discoveries  of  those  years  have  all  gone  to- 
ward the  confirmation  of  the  traditional 
faith."     .     .     . 

"  They  are  discovered  constantly  asserting 
that  things  '  cannot  have  been  as  they  are  rep- 
resented in  the  gospels,'  either  because  they  do 
not  square  with  the  writer's  own  conception  of 
Jesus  and  his  times,  or  because  they  contra- 
dict some  of  his  philosophical  ideas,  such  as 
the  impossibility  of  miracle." 

Even  Wendt  has  announced  his  conclusion 
that,  "  critical  inquiry  has  led,  though  not  im- 
mediately in  its  first  attempts,  yet  gradually 
in  the  course  of  time,  to  results  whereby  the 
historical  picture  of  Jesus  has  lost  nothing,  but 
only  gained." 

And  David  Smith  of  Tulliallan,  who  quotes 
this  saying  of  Wendt,  gives  this  statement  of 
the  results  of  that  New  Testament  criticism  by 


The  Fuller  Light  from  3Tount  Sinai       109 

which  so  many  have  been  alarmed  and  some 
have  been  robbed  of  their  faith  : — 

*'  The  history  of  Kew  Testament  criticism  is 
the  record  of  the  rise  and  fall  of  a  thousand 
theories,  each  influential  and  seemingly  final, 
for  a  brief  space,  and  each  abandoned  in  its 
turn;  and  the  New  Testament  has  outlived 
them  all,  as  it  will  outlive  their  successors  to 
the  end  of  time.     Ex-qpd^A}ri  6 x^pro?,^^  etc. 

Yes,  truly,  ''The  grass  withereth,  and  the 
flower  thereof  falleth  away  :  but  the  word  of 
the  Lord  endureth  forever." 

These  words  forcibly  emphasize  the  famous 
reply  of  Beza  to  Henry  of  Navarre :  "  It  is 
true,  sire,  that  it  is  the  part  of  the  Church  of 
God  to  receive  blows  and  return  none  ;  but,  re- 
member that  it  is  an  anvil  that  has  used  up 
many  hammers "  (a  use  beaucoup  de  mar- 
teaux). 

The  blows  of  the  hammers  are  falling  still, 
but  the  "  anvil "  is  as  firmly  fixed  as  ever,  and 
we  may  be  sure  that  in  God's  good  providence 
the  criticism  of  the  Scriptures  now  so  preva- 
lent will  be  overruled  for  the  furtherance  of 
the  gospel  in  the  end.  Criticism  may  develop, 
for  one  thing,  into  a  sane  Biblical  Theology, 
which  will  lead  to  the  deeper  and  more  en- 
thus-iastic  study  of  the  Bible,  and  the  most 


110         New  Light  on  the  Neiv   Testament 

searching  investigations  will  tend  to  establish 
confidence  in  it,  though  in  some  persons,  that 
confidence  may  for  the  time,  be  weakened  or 
destroyed. 

"  Truth's  like  a  torch  :  the  more  it's  shook 
it  shines,"  and  we  may  believe  with  well 
grounded  assurance  that  the  revelation  God 
has  given  will  give  forth  its  light  more  clearly 
through  the  discussion  of  it,  and  that  the  hand 
of  criticism,  which  some  feared  would  extin- 
guish it,  grown  more  wisely  skillful,  will  but 
make  it  shine  more  brightly  ;  yea,  w^ill  put  it 
on  a  pinnacle  to  send  forth  more  clearly  its 
beacon  light  for  the  salvation  of  a  lost  world. 


TWIJS-   LIGHTS   FROM   ATHENS 

I.    Aristides  and  Quadratus,  the  Com- 
panion Apologists 

Justin  Martyr  had  stood  in  the  Church's 
view,  for  ages,  at  the  head  of  the  brave  band 
of  defenders  of  the  faith,  the  apologists  of  the 
second  century  ;  but  the  discovery  of  the  Aj}ol- 
ogy  of  Aristides  in  the  St.  Catherine  Convent 
in  1889  has  given  to  its  author  the  iirst  place. 
Aristides  now  takes  precedence. 

But  another,  perhaps  still  more  eminent 
Christian,  Quadratus,  presented  a  defense  of 
the  Christians  at  the  same  time  with  Aristides. 

Of  this  event  Eusebius  gives  the  following 
account : — 

"But  Trajan,"  [who  became  emperor  of 
Rome  before  the  death  of  the  Apostle  John], 
"having  held  the  sovereignty  twenty  years 
wanting  six  months,  is  succeeded  in  the  im- 
perial office  by  ^lius  Hadrian.  To  him  Quad- 
ratus  addressed  a  discourse  as  an  apology  for 
the  religion  which  we  profess,  because  certain 
111 


112         New  Light  on  the  Neiv   Testament 

malicious  persons  attempted  to  harass  the 
brethren. 

"The  work  is  still  in  the  hands  of  some  of 
the  hrethren,  as  also  in  our  own,  from  which 
any  one  may  see  evident  proof  of  the  under- 
standing of  the  man  and  of  his  ajpostolio  faith." 
[Italics  mine.]  Indicating  the  early  date  at 
which  Quadratus  began  his  work,  Eusebius 
continues :  "  This  writer  shows  the  antiquity 
of  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  in  these  passages  : 

"  '  The  deeds  of  our  Saviour,'  says  he,  '  were 
always  before  you,  for  they  were  true  mira- 
cles ;  those  that  were  healed,  those  that  were 
raised  from  the  dead,  who  were  seen,  not  only 
when  healed  and  when  raised,  but  were  always 
present.  They  remained  living  a  long  time, 
not  only  whilst  our  Lord  was  on  earth,  but 
likewise  when  he  had  left  the  earth,  so  that 
some  of  them>  have  also  lived  to  our  ovm  times."* 
Such  was  Quadratus."     Eusebius  continues: — 

"  Aristides,  also,  a  man  faithfully  devoted  to 
the  religion  we  profess,  like  Quadratus,  has 
left  to  posterity  a  defense  of  the  faith  addressed 
to  Adrian.  This  work  is,  also,  preserved  by  a 
great  number,  even  to  the  present  day." 

Thus,  twenty-five  years  after  the  death  of 
the  Apostle  John,  there  occurred  this  event  of 
thrilling  interest.     At  Athens,  and,  possibly. 


Twin  Lights  from  Athens  113 

on  that  very  Mars'  Hill  where  Paul  preached, 
and  where  the  court  of  the  Areopagus  held  its 
sessions,  or  it  may  be,  on  the  adjacent  summit 
of  tlie  Acropolis,  crowned  with  that  paragon  of 
architecture,  the  Parthenon,  with  its  frieze  of 
Phidias,  its  inimitable  ivory  and  gold  Athena, 
within,  and  its  colossal  Athena,  without,  these 
two  brave  men,  Aristides,  the  Athenian  philos- 
opher, who  had  become  a  Christian,  and  Quad- 
ra tus,  the  evangelist, — the  first,  possibly  a 
young  man  filled  with  enthusiasm  at  finding  in 
the  gospel  a  philosophy  infinitely  transcend- 
ing the  noblest  product  even  of  the  Greek  in- 
tellect— the  other  almost  certainly  an  old  man, 
with  a  life  of  loving  labors  t3hiefly  behind  him, 
came  to  acknowledge  in  the  most  public  way 
their  allegiance  to  their  Lord.  This  they  did 
by  presenting  to  Hadrian,  the  Emperor  of 
Rome,  a  plea  for  their  persecuted  brethren  and 
their  much-misrepresented  faith. 

The  brave  deed  was  not  destined  to  be  fruit- 
less. Not  only  w^as  the  "  Rescript  of  Hadrian  " 
by  which  the  severity  of  the  persecution  was 
greatly  mitigated,  in  all  probability,  a  result 
of  it,  but  it  must  have  served  to  clieer  and 
strengthen  the  persecuted  Christian  host  that 
stood  trembling  behind  them,  its  leaders,  by 
its  high  example  of  Christian  heroism. 


114         New  Light  on  the  Neiv  Testament 

The  martj^rologies  of  the  middle  ages,  even, 
presented  the  tradition  of  the  brave  and  bril- 
liant deed,  and  now  the  Ajjology  of  Aristides 
has  come  forth  from  its  concealment  of  many 
centuries  as  one  of  the  Avitnesses  to  encourage 
faith,  in  an  age  of  doubt. 

Eusebius  tells  us  that  the  A])ology  of  Quad- 
ratus  "  was  in  his  hands  and  in  those  of  some 
of  the  brethren."^  He  gives  us  a  specimen 
which  makes  us  long  to  see  the  whole  of  it. 
The  extract  from  it  Avhich  we  have  indicates 
how  early  he  had  lived.  Irenaeus  tells  of  Poly- 
carp  at  whose  feet  he  had  sat  in  his  youth,  and 
Quadratus  could  probably  tell  of  John  and  pos- 
sibly, even  of  Paul  and  Peter,  as  he  was  of 
those  who,  in  the  words  of  Eusebius,  "held  the 
first  rank  in  the  apostolic  succession,"  and  who 
had  seen  those  who  were  the  subjects  of  our 
Saviour's  miracles. 

What  a  chasm  this  Aijology  of  Quadratus 
if  recovered,  would  bridge  !  The  half  century 
from  A.  D.  Y5  to  125  is  almost  a  blank  to  us. 
We  have  scarcely  any  particulars  about  it,  and 
yet,  in  these  fifty  years   there   took  place  the 

1  "The  Apology  of  Quadratus  seems  to  have  survived  till 
the  6th  century,  for  several  passages  are  quoted  in  the  con- 
troversy between  the  monk  Andrew  and  Euseliius  (86), 
Pliotius,  Cod.  162."— Dr.  George  Salmon  in  Did.  of  Xn. 
Biography. 


TiL'in  Licjlds  from  Alliens  115 

greatest  movement  of  all  church  history  since 
the  days  of  the  apostles.  The  letter  of  a 
heathen,  written  about  twelve  years  after  John's 
body  was  laid  to  rest  at  Ephesus,  throws  an 
interesting  sidelight  on  it.  Trajan's  governor 
of  Bithynia,  Pliny,  writing  to  his  master, 
speaks  of  the  heathen  temples  "almost  de- 
serted," of  "great  numbers  involved  in  the 
dangers  of  these  persecutions,"  which  were 
then  in  progress,  while  he  asserts  that  "  this 
contagious  superstition  is  not  confined  to  the 
cities  only,  but  has  spread  its  infection  among 
the  country  villages."  He  tells  Trajan  of 
"  this  inquiry  having  already  extended,  and 
being  still  likely  to  extend  to  persons  of  all 
ages  and  ranks,  and  of  both  sexes."  Such  is  the 
view  of  the  results  of  this  period  of  evangeli- 
zation which  a  Roman  governor  has  from  the 
outside  of  the  Christian  community,  and  with 
eyes  hostile  to  it.  It  is  the  view  of  a  con- 
temporary and  one  who  is  a  very  competent 
witness  as  far  as  intelligence  is  concerned. 

Eusebius  gives,  at  a  much  later  time,  the 
inside  view  of  the  agencies — the  human 
agencies  at  least — which  brought  about  these 
wonderful  results.  But  he  had  before  him  the 
words  of  earlier  writers  who  were  not  only 
witnesses    within    the    Christian    circle,    but 


116         New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

agents  in  the  glorious  work.  Eusebius  knew 
of  others,  but  he  makes  a  more  honorable  men- 
tion of  none  than  of  Quadratus.     He  says : — 

"  Of  those  who  flourished  in  these  times, 
Quadratus  is  said  to  have  been  distinguished 
for  prophetical  gifts.  There  were  many  others, 
also  noted  in  these  times,  who  held  the  first 
rank  in  the  apostolic  succession.  These,  as  the 
holy  disciples  of  such  men,  also  built  up  the 
churches  where  foundations  had  been  laid  in 
every  place  by  the  apostles.  They  augmented 
the  means  of  promulgating  the  gospel  more  and 
more,  and  spread  the  seeds  of  salvation  and  of 
the  heavenly  kingdom  throughout  the  world, 
far  and  wide.  For  the  most  of  the  disciples 
at  that  time,  animated  with  a  more  ardent  love 
of  the  divine  word,  had  first  fulfilled  the 
Saviour's  precept  by  distributing  their  sub- 
stance to  the  needy.  Afterwards,  leaving 
their  country,  they  performed  the  office  of 
evangelists  to  those  who  had  not  yet  heard 
the  faith ;  whilst  with  a  noble  ambition,  they 
delivered  to  them  the  books  of  the  holy  gospel. 
After  laying  the  foundation  of  the  gospel  in 
foreign  parts,  as  the  particular  object  of  their 
mission,  and  after  appointing  others  as  shep- 
herds of  the  flocks,  and  committing  to  these 
the  care  of  those  that  had  been  recently  intro- 


Twin  Lights  from  Athens  117 

duced,  they  went  again  to  other  regions  and 
nations,  with  the  grace  and  cooperation  of 
God.  The  Holy  Spirit  also  wrought  many 
wonders,  as  yet,  through  them,  so  that  as  soon 
as  the  gospel  was  heard,  men  voluntarily,  and 
in  crowds,  eagerly  embraced  the  true  faith 
with  their  whole  minds." 

Oh,  glorious,  golden  age  of  Christianity, 
prophecy  and  promise,  we  trust,  of  a  still  more 
glorious  golden  age  to  come,  when,  after  these 
times  of  worldliness  and  dearth,  God  will  pour 
out  his  spirit  upon  all  flesh  !  Quadratus  had 
been,  perhaps,  for  fifty  years  among  these 
scenes  so  blessed  and  yet  so  full  at  times  of 
suffering.  Now  is  a  time  of  suffering,  and  the 
old  hero  comes  with  his  defense,  and  along 
with  the  philosopher  Aristides,  appeals  to  the 
emperor  in  behalf  of  the  Christians.  God 
seems  to  have  blessed  the  bra»ve  deed.  The 
"  Rescript  of  Hadrian  "  to  Fundanus,  the  pro- 
consul of  Asia,  was  issued  after  it,  command- 
ing that  no  Christian  should  be  punished  with- 
out examination  and  proof. 

JSTow,  what  a  boon  would  the  full  account 
of  this  glorious  and  yet  terrible  half  century, 
written  by  a  contemporary  and  thoroughly 
competent  witness,  be!  For  one  reason  one 
would  like  to  live  fifty  years  more.     It  is  to 


118         NeAC  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

be  hoped  that  within  that  time  the  long  lost 
Apology  of  Quadratits  will  be  discovered,  as 
that  of  Aristides  has  been  already.  Eusebius 
had  it  before  him  when  he  wrote  his  history, 
and  gives  us  a  very  appetizing  and  very  tanta- 
lizing morsel.  What  a  flood  of  light  would 
the  rediscovered  Apology  shed  on  this  glorious 
and  yet  almost  wholly  unknown  half  century ! 
Before  this  period  we  have  the  simplicity  of 
apostolic  Christianity.  Soon  after  it  we  find 
the  beginnings,  at  least  of  that  intricate  and 
artificial  ecclesiasticism,  which  so  sadly  trans- 
formed and  deformed  the  pure  religion  of 
Christ.  The  multiform  errors  of  Gnosticism, 
that  "  hydra-headed  monster,"  as  Hippoly tus 
calls  it,  that  w^ith  the  many  forms  of  heathen 
philosophies  and  religions,  served  to  adulterate 
and  ruin  so  much  of  the  nominal  Christianity 
of  the  time,  soon  came  upon  the  scene.  The 
influences  which  wTouglit  the  sad  change 
were  working,  doubtless,  in  secret,  through  all 
this  long  period,  but  we  cannot  trace  them. 
All  is  dim  and  indistinct,  and  to  some  extent 
uncertain,  through  all  this  tract  of  time.  We 
know  something  of  some  characters  in  it,  but 
they  are  to  us  at  this  distance  like  men  seen 
through  a  mist,  across  wide  gorges  among 
mountain  heights — magnified,  shadowy  forms. 


Twin  Lights  from  Athens  119 

standing,  we  cannot  tell  just  where,  and  mov- 
ing, we  scarcely  know  whither. 

What  a  boon  a  flood  of  clear  light  on  this 
period  would  be !  That  light  the  Apology  of 
Quadrat  us,  if  discovered,  will  probably  give  in 
such  a  way  as  no  other  known  writing  does. 
He  was  a  man  qualified  to  tell  of  these  times 
intelligently  and  reliably ;  and  from  the  quo- 
tations of  Eusebius  from  his  Apology  and  from 
what  Eusebius  says  of  him,  we  see  that  he  must 
have  told  much  that  would  be  intensely  inter- 
esting to  us  after  almost  eighteen  centuries. 

II.    The  Apology  of  Aristides  Dis- 
covered 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  Apology  which 
Aristides  addressed  to  Hadrian. 

We  can  only  indulge  hopes  of  the  discovery 
of  the  Apology  of  Quadratus)  that  of  his 
companion  apologist  is  now  in  our  hands, 
coming  to  us  in  two  languages,  and  in  two 
different  forms,  in  one  of  which  we  have  it  in 
its  entirety,  while,  in  the  other,  we  possess  far 
the  greater  part  of  it. 

The  Apology  of  Aristides  was,  for  ages, 
supposed  to  have  finally  perished,  with  a  vast 
mass  of  the  writings  of  antiquity. 


120         Neio  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

Jerome,  about  the  year  420,  mentions  the 
Apology  of  Aristides,  and  says  that  it  was 
presented  to  the  Emperor  Hadrian  at  the  same 
time  with  the  Ajjology  of  Quadratus  ;  that  it 
was  extant  in  his  day,  and  was  afterwards 
imitated  by  Justin  Martyr.  There  is  no  later 
mention  of  its  existence ;  but  what  has  been 
called  "  a  faint  reflection  "  of  the  earlier  testi- 
mony is  found  in  the  mediaeval  martyrologies 
as,  in  them,  the  31st  of  August  is  given  as  the 
saints'  day  of  "  The  blessed  Aristides  [to  use 
the  words  of  the  old  record]  most  renowned 
for  faith  and  wisdom,  who  presented  books  on 
the  Christian  religion  to  the  Prince  Hadrian, 
and  most  brilliantly  proclaimed  in  the  presence 
of  the  emperor  himself  how  that  Christ  Jesus 
is  the  only  God."  ^ 

In  the  sev^enteenth  century  there  was  a 
rumor  that  the  Aj)ology  was  in  some  monastic 
libraries  in  Greece,  but  the  search  made  for  it 
was  fruitless. 

In  the  spring  of  the  year  1889  Prof.  J. 
Pendel  Harris,  the  distinguished  scholar  and 
lecturer  of  Clare  College,  Cambridge,  found,  in 
the  library  of  the  St.  Catherine  Convent  on 
Mount  Sinai,   where  Tischendorf    had    thirty 

^  We  find  the  AjJoJogy  to  be  a  powerful  argument  against 
polytheism  and  for  the  unity-in-trinity  of  God. 


TiL'in  Liijlils  from  Athens  121 

years  before  discovered  the  Codex  Sinaiticus, 
the  long  lost  Ajyology  of  Aristides.  It  was  in 
the  Syriac  language,  in  a  manuscript  which 
Prof.  Harris  refers  to  the  seventh  century. 
Eleven  years  before  this,  the  Mechitarist 
scholars  in  their  convent  of  S.  Lazaro,  near 
Venice,  had  published  a  Latin  translation  of 
what  was  thought  to  be  (and  afterwards  proved 
to  be)  the  first  two  chapters  of  the  Apology  in 
the  Armenian  language.  This  fragment  had 
been  declared  spurious  by  Eenan  and  other 
scholars,  because  it  contained  a  term  describing 
the  virgin  as  the  "  God-bearer  " — a  term  which 
belonged  to  a  much  later  age  than  that  in  which 
the  Apology  of  Aristldes  was  written.  The 
original  fragment  was  in  the  Armenian  lan- 
guage, as  has  been  said,  and  after  fuller  ex- 
amination, the  use  of  this  term  was  found  to 
have  been  due  to  a  mistake  of  the,  Latin  trans- 
lator, and  when  Harris  discovered  the  whole 
AjMogy  in  Syriac,  this  Armenian  fragment 
was  found  to  correspond  with  it,  and  its 
genuineness  was  vindicated.  After  the  happy 
discovery  of  the  Apology  it  was  found,  almost 
entire,  in  a  slightly  modified  form,  but  in  the 
original  Greek,  imbedded  and  concealed,  like 
a  jewel  in  common  earth,  in  a  strange  story  of 
the    middle     ages,     entitled     Barlaam     and 


122         NeAV  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

Josaphat — a  tale  of  such  interest,  in  the 
absence  of  anything  like  the  modern  novel, 
that  it  was  translated  into  some  twenty  lan- 
guages, Hebrew  and  Icelandic  being  of  the 
number.  So  seriously  was  the  romance  taken 
by  the  Church  of  Rome  that  Barlaam  and 
Josaphat  were  accorded  a  place  in  the  calen- 
dar of  saints — a  calendar,  however,  where 
much  else  equally  as  fictitious  may  be  found. 

The  brilliant  corypheus  of  the  Eitschlians, 
Prof.  Adolf  Harnack,  in  a  notable  article  in 
the  Prussische  JalirhucTier^  said  :  "  The  dis 
covery  of  this  Apology  is  a  find  of  the  first 
importance."  A  glance  at  its  contents  will 
convince  you  that  this  is  true.  The  Apology 
of  Aristicles  is  a  witness  not  only  for  the 
gospels,  but  for  the  whole  ISTew  Testament. 
The  name  New  Testament  occurs  a  little  later, 
as  we  see  from  a  quotation  in  Eusebius  (H.  E. 
V.  11). 

III.    The    Apology    and    the    New 
Testament 

In  examining  the  Apology  of  Aristides  as  to 
its  dependence  on  the  JS^ew  Testament,  there 
are  several  tilings  to  be  considered.  One  is 
that  it  is  brief,  the  translations  of  the  Syriac 
and  of  the  Greek,  printed  side  by  side  in  the 


Twin  Lights  from  Athens  123 

Ante-Nlcene  Fathers  (Yol.  IX)  occupying  only 
seventeen,  pages.  The  translation  of  the 
Greek,  if  complete,  would  occupy  about  seven 
pages.  Of  these  seven  pages,  more  than  three- 
fourths  of  the  space  is  occupied  with  arguments 
against  the  most  prominent  systems  of  poly- 
theism, and  for  the  unity-in-trinity  of  God. 
The  arguments  are  chiefly  philosophical,  and 
are  simply  an  appeal  to  reason.  The  em- 
peror addressed  was  a  heathen,  supposed,  as  is 
shown,  to  know  nothing  of  the  writings  of  the 
Christians,  which  he  is  importuned  again  and 
again  to  read.  Hence  we  should  not  expect 
quotations  from  these  writings  or  any  mention 
of  the  names  of  the  writers — names  which 
would  be  meaningless  to  Hadrian. 

It  will  be  in  the  interest  of  brevity  and  prob- 
ably more  satisfactory  to  the  reader  to  refrain 
from  a  lengthened  discussion,  ayd  present  a 
sample  of  the  Apology,  the  whole  of  which 
may  not  be  accessible  to  some.  Let  us  take 
the  fifteenth  section  in  which  Aristides  speaks 
of  the  origin  of  the  Chistians,  and  refutes  the 
heathen  charges  of  immorality  against  them. 
We  will  take  the  translation  from  the  Greek 
fragment  as  being  probabh^  more  literal  and 
briefer  than  the  translation  of  the  Syriac, 
which    is  itself   a  translation,  and   seemingly 


124         New  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

somewhat  paraphrastic.^  The  first  part — that 
about  Christ — occurs  earlier  in  the  Syriac. 
"  Now  the  Christians  trace  their  origin  from 
the  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  he  is  acknowledged 
by  the  Holy  Spirit  to  be  the  Son  of  the  Most 
High  God,  who  came  down  from  heaven  for 
the  salvation  of  men,  and  being  born  of  a  pure 
virgin,  unbegotten  and  immaculate,  he  assumed 
flesh  and  revealed  himself  among  men  that  he 
might  recall  them  to  himself  from  their  wan- 
dering after  many  gods.  And  having  accom- 
plished his  wonderful  dispensation,  by  a 
voluntary  choice,  he  tasted  death  on  the 
cross,  fulfilling  an  august  dispensation.  And 
after  three  days  he  came  to  life  again  and  as- 
cended into  heaven.  And,  if  you  would  read, 
O  King,  you  may  judge  the-  glory  of  his 
presence  from  the  holy  gospel  writing  as  it  is 
called  among  themselves.  He  had  twelve  dis- 
ciples who,  after  his  ascension,  went  forth  into 
the  provinces  of  the  whole  world,  and  declared 
his  greatness.     As  for  instance,  one  of  them 

^  Dr.  J.  Armitage  Robinson  (now  Dean  of  Westminster) 
edited  the  Greek  text  discovered  by  him  in  the  story  of 
Barlaam  and  Josaphat,  as  an  appendix  to  Prof.  Rendel 
Harris's  A2)ology  of  Aristidea,  in  Texts  and  Studies,  No.  1. 
In  introducing  this  appendix,  Professor  Harris  says,  in  a 
spirit  which  is  as  beautiful  as  it  is  rare,  "Need  I  say  how 
gladly  I  make  way  for  him  in  the  appendix,  which  will 
really  be  the  text  itself." 


Ticin  Lights  from  Athens  125 

traversed  the  countries  about  us,  proclaiming 
the  doctrine  of  the  truth.  From  this  it  is  that 
they  who  still  observe  the  righteousness  en- 
joined by  their  preaching  are  called  Chris- 
tians. 

"  And  these  are  they  who  more  than  all  the 
nations  on  the  earth  have  found  the  truth. 
For  they  know  God  the  Creator  and  Fashioner 
of  all  things,  through  the  only  begotten  Son 
and  the  Holy  Spirit ;  and  besides  him  they 
worship  no  other  God.  They  have  the  com- 
mands of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  himself  graven 
upon  their  hearts ;  and  they  observe  them, 
looking  forward  to  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead,  and  life  in  the  world  to  come.  They  do 
not  commit  adultery  nor  fornication,  nor  bear 
false  witness,  nor  covet  the  things  of  others ; 
they  honor  father  and  mother,  and  love  tljeir 
neighbors ;  they  judge  justly,  and  they  never 
do  to  others  what  they  would  not  wish  to 
happen  to  themselves,^  they  appeal  to  those 

^  The  Syriac  has,  also,  ' '  and  the  food  which  is  consecrated 
to  idols  they  do  not  eat." 

Dr.  Purves  has  kindly  drawn  my  attention  to  the  indica- 
tion in  this  Apology  that  the  text  of  The  Acts  which  Aristides 
used  had  at  that  time  suffered  correction.  The  negative 
form  of  the  ' '  golden  rule  ' '  here  seen  is  noted  by  Seeberg,  of 
Berlin,  as  an  instance  of  "Western"  corruption  of  Acts 
15  :  20  and  29,  and  Professor  Harris,  as  is  seen  in  his  Four 
Lectures  on  the  Western  Text,  agrees  with  him.  As  this  is 
found  in  connection  with  the  statement  that  * '  they  abstain 


126         New  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

who  injure  them,  and  try  to  win  them  as 
friends  ;  tiiey  are  eager  to  do  good  to  their 
enemies;  they  are  gentle  and  easy  to  be  en- 
treated ;  they  abstain  from  all  unlawful  con- 
versation and  from  all  impurity  ;  they  despise 
not  the  widow  nor  oppress  the  orphan;  and 
he  that  has,  gives  ungrudgingly  for  the  main- 
tenance of  him  who  has  not.  If  they  see  a 
stranger  they  take  him  under  their  roof,  and 
rejoice  over  him  as  over  a  very  brother ;  for 
they  call  themselves  brethren  not  after  the 
flesh,  but  after  the  spirit." 

When  he  tells  the  Emperor  that  one  of  the 
apostles  "  traversed  the  countries  about  us," 
we  can  hardly  help  believing  that  he  refers  to 
Paul,  the  apostle  who  first  brought  the  gospel 
to  Greece.  Surely,  too,  it  does  not  require  a 
vivid  imagination  to  hear,  in  the  utterances  of 
Aristides,  echoes  of  Paul's  address  on  Mars' 
Hill.  While  there  are  contrasts  between  the 
Apology  of  Aristides  and  this  address,  which 
we  may  call  the  Apology  of  Paid — contrasts 

from  fidwXoOura/'  Seeberg  concluded  that  the  interpreta- 
tion was  in  the  copy  of  77/e  Acts  used  by  Aristides.  This 
would  seem  to  indicate  that  2'he  Acts  was,  as  Seeberg  says, 
"in  ecclesiastical  use,"  and  that  it  was,  even  at  that  time, 
an  "ancient  book,  handed  down  from  the  apostolic  age." 

My  thanks  are  due  to  the  Rev.  T.  W.  Lingle,  w  ho  kindly 
furnished  me  references  from  the  Foiir  Lectures  to  w^hich  I 
did  not  have  access. 


Twin  Lights  from  Athens  127 

in  \Yhich  Professor  Stokes,  of  Dublin,  Las 
seen  a  proof  that  The  Acts  was  written  in  the 
first  century — at  the  same  time  there  are  strik- 
ing resemblances.^  Let  us  look  at  some  of 
them  : — 

Paul  strove  earnestly  to  make  known  to  his 
heathen  hearers  "the  unknown  God."  This 
we  see  Aristides  tried  to  do  for  Hadrian,  and 
in  doing  it,  presented  the  theology — even  the 
trinitarianism — of  Paul's  epistles. 

Paul  spoke  of  the  folly  of  idolatry,  and  so 
does  Aristides,  with  force  and  at  length. 

Paul  spoke  of  the  creation  of  "  the  world 
and  all  things  therein,"  and  so  does  Aristides. 

Paul  spoke  of  the  resurrection,  and  so  does 
Aristides.  Paul  spoke  of  the  judgment,  and 
of  Christ  as  the  Judge,  and  so  does  Aristides, 
in  such  words  as  these : — 

"So  shall  they  appear  before  the  awful 
judgment,  which  through  Jesus  the  Messiah,  is 
destined  to  come  upon  the  whole  human  race." 

Paul  speaks  of  the  great  mistakes  of  the 
Athenians  in  their  worship,  and  declares  of 
God  that  "  he  is  Lord  of  heaven  and  earth  " 
and  that  he"dwelleth  not  in  temples  made 
with  hands ;  neither  is  worshiped  with  men's 
hands,  as  though  he  needed  anything,  seeing 

^  Expository  New  Testament,  in  loc. 


128         Neic  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

he  giveth  to  all  life,  and  breath,  and  all  things." 
Paul  was  speaking  to  philosophers  in  Athens. 
In  the  same  Athens  Aristides  speaks  of  the 
writers  and  philosophers  among  them,  thus  : — 

''  Herein,  too,  (they  err)  in  asserting  of  deity 
that  any  such  thing  as  deficiency  can  be  pres- 
ent to  it,  as  when  they  say  that  he  receives 
sacrifice  and  requires  burnt  offering  and 
libation  and  immolations  of  men,  and  temples. 
But  God  is  not  in  need,  and  none  of  these 
things  are  necessary  to  him." 

When  we  remember  that  Paul's  address  to 
the  Epicurean  and  the  Stoic  philosophers  occu- 
pied only  ten  verses  of  the  seventeenth  chapter 
of  The  Acts,  and  when  we  see  such  correspond- 
ences in  thought  and  even  in  diction  between 
the  two  "  Apologies,^''  can  we  resist  the  convic- 
tion that  this  passage  of  The  Acts  was  in  the 
mind  of  Aristides,  just  as  we  have  seen  that 
the  fifteenth  chapter  was? 

It  is  clear  that  the  thought  of  Aristides 
moved  in  the  sphere  of  the  gospels,  The  Acts, 
the  epistles  and  The  Revelation,  which  consti- 
tute the  New  Testament.  How  could  this 
have  been  so,  if  what  he  calls  "  the  holy  gos- 
pel writing  "  and  "  their  other  writings  "  which 
he  exhorts  the  emperor  to  read,  and  from 
which  he  says  he  derived  his  information,  had 


Twin  Lights  from  Athens  12<J 

not  been  the  same  New  Testament  which  we 
now  have  ?  It  is  perfectly  safe  to  say  that  no 
objector  can  answer  the  question. 

But  besides  this  general  mark  of  the  identity 
of  the  truths  proclaimed  by  Aristides  with 
those  of  the  Kew  Testament,  there  is  a  re- 
markable coincidence  in  forms  of  expression, 
as  for  instance  : — 

Paul  says  (Col.  1 :  17),  "  By  him  all  things 
consist." 

Aristides  says,  "  Through  him  all  things 
consist." 

Paul  says  the  heathen  "  served  the  creature 
more  than  the  Creator." 

Aristides  says  they  "  began  to  worship  the 
creation  more  than  their  Creator." 

James  exhorts  Christians  to  be  "  gentle,  and 
easy  to  be  entreated." 

Aristides  says,  "  They  are  gentle  and  easy 
to  be  entreated." 

Paul  speaks  of  the  Jews  as  (Pom.  9  :  3),  "  My 
brethren,  my  kinsmen  according  to  the  flesh." 

And  (Rom.  8 :  5)  uses  the  expression  "  not 
after  the  flesh,  but  after  the  Spirit." 

Aristides  says,  "  Brethren,  not  after  the 
flesh,  but  after  the  Spirit." 

Peter  (2  Pet.  3  :  16),  speaking  of  the  epistles 
of    Paul,  says:     "As  also  in  all  his  epistles 


130         New  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

.  .  .  in  which  are  some  things  hard  to  be 
understood." 

Aristides  having  told  the  emperor  of  "  the 
holy  gospel  writing,"  saj^s  ;  "  There  are  found 
in  their  other  writings  things  which  are  hard 
to  utter  and  difficult  for  one  to  narrate."  ^ 

In  Hebrews  (2 :  5 ;  6  :  5)  we  find  the  phrase, 
"  the  w^orld  to  come." 

Aristides  speaks  of  those  who  seek  "  the 
world  to  come." 

John  in  The  Revelation  (1 :  1)  speaks  of  "  the 
things  which  must  come  to  pass  (r.  v.)  here- 
after," having  already  (1 :  19)  received  the 
command  from  the  Saviour,  "  Write  .  .  . 
the  things  which  shall  come  to  pass  hereafter." 

Aristides  says,  "  Since  I  read  in  their  writ- 
ings, I  was  fully  assured  of  these  things  as 
also  of  things  which  are  to  come." 

Paul  repeats  God's  promise,  "  I  will  put  my 
laws  into  their  hearts,  and  in  their  minds  will 
I  write  them." 

Aristides  says  the  Christians  "  have  the 
commands  of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  himself 
grav^en  upon  their  hearts." 

Paul  exhorts  Christians  to  give  "  not  grudg- 
ingly." 

'This  expression  "their  other  writings"  occurs  in  the 
Syriac,  but  not  in  the  Greek  as  we  have  it. 


Twin  Lights  from  Athens  131 

Aristides  says  the  Christian  gives  "un- 
grudgingly." 

Peter  (1  Pet.  1 :  23)  speaks  of  the  regener- 
ated as  *'  born  again,  not  of  corruptible  seed,  but 
of  incorruptible,  by  the  word  of  God,  which 
liveth  and  abideth  forever." 

Aristides  says,  "  Let  all  that  are  without 
the  knowledge  of  God,  draw  near  there  (^.  ^., 
to  '  their  doctrine ' — '  the  gateway  of  light ') 
and  they  will  receive  incorruptible  words." 

John,  the  beloved,  says,  "  Let  us  love  one 
another." 

Aristides  says,  "And  they  love  one  an- 
other." 

Further  quotation  would  be  wearisome,  and, 
surely,  is  unnecessary,  ^o  one,  unless  under 
the  influence  of  invincible  prepossessions,  could 
doubt  that  Aristides  had  read  in  what  he  refers 
to  as  "  the  gospel,"  "  the  Holy  Gospel  writing," 
as  it  is  called  among  themselves,  "  their  writ- 
ings," "their  other  writings,"  just  what  we 
read  in  our  Kew  Testament.  These  writings 
were  not  called  the  Kew  Testament,  2C&  is  well 
known,  at  first.  But  a  writer  against  Montan- 
ism  quoted  by  Eusebius  (H.  E.  v.  17)  speaks  of 
them  in  a  way  which  shows  that  they  were  re- 
garded as  just  as  sacred  as  the  most  orthodox 
Christian  considers  them  now.     It  seems  clear, 


132         New  Light  on  the  Neio   Testament 

too,  from  his  language  that  the  book  of  The 
Eevelation  concluded  the  body  of  writings  then, 
just  as  it  does  now.  Speaking  of  opposing  the 
doctrines  of  Montanus  by  arguments,  he  ex- 
presses himself  as  "  apprehensive,  lest,  perhaps, 
I  should  appear  to  give  any  new  injunctions, 
or  to  superadd  anything  to  the  doctrine  of  the 
New  Testament,  to  which  it  is  impossible  that 
anything  should  be  added  or  diminished  by 
one  who  has  resolved  to  live  according  to  the 
gospel."  "  The  gospel "  and  "  their  other 
writings"  of  Aristides  must  be  the  same  body 
of  writings  called  by  this  writer  "the  gospel " 
and  "  the  New  Testament,"  and  the  quotations 
given  indicate  that  it  was  practically  identical 
with  the  New  Testament  in  our  hands  to-day. 

Common  sense  demands  an  answer  to  this 
question : — 

If  these  writings,  evidently  the  same  with 
our  New  Testament,  were  universally  regarded 
by  Christians  in  a.  d.  125,  as  inspired  and  au- 
thoritative, and  had  been  circulated  all  over 
the  Roman  world  long  before  this  and  ac- 
cepted everywhere  as  the  sacred  records  of 
Christianity,  how  did  they  attain  this  universal 
acceptance  in  this  character  ? 

The  only  rational  answer  is  that  they  went 
forth  under  apostolic  authority.     These  writ- 


Twin  Lights  from  Athens  133 

ings,  thus  accepted  by  the  great  body  of  Chris- 
tians, many  thousands  of  whom  were  younger 
contemporaries  of  the  Apostle  John,  must  have 
had  apostolic  authorship  or  authorization. 
Any  other  explanation  of  their  universal 
acceptance  is  irrational  and  incredible. 

AYe  have  already  found  Justin  Martyr  imi- 
tating the  illustrious  example  of  his  brother 
philosopher  Aristides  and  presenting  a  more 
extended  defense  of  the  Christians  to  Anto- 
nine,  the  Pious,  and  his  colleagues  ;  and  in  this 
and  the  other  writings  of  Justin  we  find  him 
speaking  also  of  "the  gospel,"  giving  it,  or 
rather  a  part  of  it,  another  name,  "  The 
Memoirs  of  the  Aj^ostles^  We  have  found 
that  these  contained  what  our  four  gospels  do. 
Then  we  have  seen  standing  by  the  side  of 
Aristides  at  Athens  in  125  a  brave  old  man, 
presenting  to  Hadrian  his  defense  of  a  some- 
w^hat  different  kind.  This  man  had  labored 
for  Christ  for  a  long  term  of  service.  He  is  of 
"  the  first  immediate  succession  of  the  apos- 
tles," and  had,  not  improbably,  heard  Paul 
preach,  for  he  seems  to  have  been  a  Roman ; 
had  the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  is  ranked  with 
Agabus  and  the  daughters  of  Philip ;  had  seen 
some  of  those  whom  our  blessed  Lord  liad 
healed  and  raised   from  the   dead  ;   and    this 


134         Neiv  Light  on  the  Neio  Testament 

man  bad  been  one  of  tbose  wbo  bad  not  only 
preacbed  tbe  gospel  orally  in  many  lands,  but 
had  distributed  tbe  written  "  Gospel "  or  IS'ew 
Testament  including  these  "  Me/uoirs  of  the 
Apostles  and  those  that  followed  them."  For, 
we  know  him  as  the  fellow-apologist  of  Aris- 
tides,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  bad  these  writings 
which  Justin  quotes  so  freely.  We  surely  will 
not  be  asked  to  believe  that  Quadratus  spent 
his  life  in  distributing,  as  the  authentic  records 
of  Christianity,  gospels  which  were  unauthor- 
ized by  the  apostles-  whom  he  immediately 
succeeded  and  whose  work  he,  in  company 
with  others,  took  up.  On  the  other  hand  he 
could  not  be  supposed  to  have  had  a  different 
set  of  Christian  writings  from  those  with 
which  his  companion  apologist  shows  himself 
so  familiar,  and  which  bear  so  many  marks  of 
identity  with  those  we  have  in  our  hands  to- 
day. 

In  such  witnesses  as  Justin,  who  sealed  his 
testimony  with  his  heart's  blood,  Aristides  as 
courageous  and  faithful  as  his  namesake  who 
was  surnamed  "  the  Just,"  and  Quadratus, 
who,  true  to  his  name,  '^  stood  four  square  to 
all  the  winds  that  blow,"  we  have  men  whose 
evidence  cannot  lightly  be  brushed  aside.  As 
Professor  Gildersleeve  has  said  of  the  first,  so 


Tii'in  Lights  from  Athens  135 

we  may  say  of  all  of  them,  "  They  were  no 
holiday  Christians." 

Aristides  told  Hadrian  that  if  he  would  read 
this  " gospel,"  he  would  "perceive  the  power 
that  belongs  to  it."  All  Christians  experience 
this  power ;  the  history  of  the  world  clearly 
shows  it  too,  and  we  could  not  but  believe  it 
to  be  true  and  divine,  even  if  we  knew  noth- 
ing of  its  history ;  but  it  is  a  great  gratifica- 
tion to  be  able  to  trace  its  utterances,  by  this 
and  other  lines,  back  to  Christ  and  his  apostles. 


YI. 

LIGHT   FROM  THE    LAND   OF   THE   PHARAOHS 

Egyptian  darkness  is  a  phrase  with  which 
we  are  all  familiar ;  but  in  our  clay,  from  the 
land  of  the  Pharaohs,  where  once  fell  a  curse 
of  "  darkness  which  may  be  felt,"  and  over 
which  for  centuries  has  hung  a  pall  of 
ignorance,  degradation  and  misery,  much  light 
is  springing  up.  Not  only  is  this  light  burst- 
ing forth  from  its  great  temples,  and  tombs  of 
kings,  but  even  the  sands  which  cover  long 
ruined  towns  and  villages,  and  humbler  burial- 
places,  are  yielding  their  torches  for  the 
illumination  of  the  word  of  God.  Even  the 
specimens  of  ''potsherd  literature" — the 
ostralca,  or  inscribed  pottery  tablets — now 
found  in  large  numbers  and  in  many  lan- 
guages, and  in  many  styles  of  writing,  are 
adding  their  rays.  Among  them,  some  in 
Greek,  are  found  to  give  remarkable  confirma- 
tion to  the  accuracy  of  the  JSTew  Testament. 

But  very  clear  light  has  been  coming  of  late 
years  from  another  source  in  the  land  of 
Egypt  to  dissipate  the  mists  which  unbeliev- 

136 


Lujhl  from  the  Land  of  the  Pharaohs     137 

ing  criticism  has  endeavored  to  throw  round 
the  JSTew  Testament,  and  the  gospels  especially. 
The  book,  Supernatural  Religion^  which  served 
to  unsettle  the  faith  of  so  many  Englishmen, 
had  a  very  distinct  echo  from  the  shores  of 
America.  A  learner  who  sat  for  years  at  the 
feet  of  its  autlior — not  literally,  by  going  to 
England  and  receiving  oral  instruction,  but  by 
poring  over  the  bulky  three  volumes  here — 
has,  in  his  turn,  produced  a  book  ^  by  which 
many  ill-informed  Americans  have  been  con- 
firmed in  infidelity. 

The  main  contention  of  this  book  is  that 
our  four  gospels  were  not  written  till  '4ate  in 
the  second  century,"  and  that  they  were 
substituted,  by  ecclesiastical  authority,  for  the 
original  gospels,  which  were  written  in  the 
first  century,  but  are  now  lost.  He  tells  his 
readers,  "Of  the  numerous  gospels  which 
were  in  circulation  in  the  second  century,  not 
more  than  three  can  with  any  certainty,  or 
with  any  high  degree  of  probability,  be  traced 
back  to  the  time  of  the  apostles.  These  are 
The  Gospel  of  Paul,  The  Gospel,  or  RecolleG- 
tions  of  Peter,  and  The  Oracles,  or  Sayings, 
of  Christ,  attributed  to  Matthew." 

1  "The  History  of  the  Christian  Religion  to  the  year  200/' 
by  C.  B.  Waite. 


138         New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

The  last-named,  he  thinks,  assumed  the 
form  of  the  ''Gos2)el  according  to  the  Hebrews^'' 
in  a  later  development.  He  also  conjectures 
that  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Egyptians 
was  a  version  of  it. 

Now  as  to  The  Gospel  of  Paidy  I  think 
there  need  be  no  discussion.  When  Paul  used 
the  words,  "according  to  my  gospel,"  the 
connection  shows  that  he  meant  the  Gospel 
of  Christ  as  preached  by  him,  and  not  a 
gospel  which  he  had  written.  This  is  too 
puerile  to  notice  further.  The  author  does 
not  venture  to  assert  that  there  is  any  trace  of 
the  existence,  at  any  time,  of  such  a  writing 
in  the  form  of  even  a  single  quotation  from 
it ;  though  he  ventures  to  guess  that  it  was 
perpetuated,  in  its  first  stage  of  evolution,  in 
The  Gospel  of  Marcion.  "It  may  be  in- 
ferred," he  tells  us,  "  that  it  afterwards  be- 
came incorporated  in  The  Gospel  of  Marcion^ 
A.  D.,  145." 

The  Oracles^  or  sayings^  of  Christ,  if  they 
existed,^  are  "  lost,"  indeed,  as  he  says,  but  the 
Gospel  according  to  the  Hehreivs,  which  the 
author  thinks  is  its  secondary  form,  is  not 
wholly    lost.      Twenty-three    fragments    are 

^  No  trace  of  such  a  writing,  distinct  from  the  Gospel  of 
Matthew,  can  be  found. 


LkjIU  from  the  Land  of  the  Pharaohs     139 

preserved,  and  these  we  have  the  right  to  ex- 
amine. What  is  the  result  ?  In  tliis  heretical 
writing,  the  traces  of  our  four  gospels  are 
plainly  visible,^  showing,  of  course,  their 
previous  existence.  The  Gospel  according  to 
the  Hebrews  was  evidently  a  reconstruction 
of  the  four  gospels,  with  certain  additions  and 
changes  to  furnish  a  support  for  the  peculiar 
views  of  the  Judaizing  sect  of  the  Ebionites. 
This  sect  seems  to  have  had  predecessors  in 
some  churches  even  before  the  death  of  the 
Apostle  John,  and  may  be  referred  to  by  him 
in  the  Apocalypse  as  those  "  who  say  they  are 
Jews,  and  are  not,  but  do  lie,"  and  whom  he 
describes  as  "  of  the  synagogue  of  Satan." 
Their  heretical  gospel,  with  which  they  tried 
to  supplant  the  four  gospels,  may  have  been 
written  very  early  in  the  second  century ;  and 
if  so,  as  even  the  few  fragments  which  remain 
show  that  our  gospels  were  all  drawn  upon, 
the  fact  that  these  gospels  were  written  before 
the  close  of  the  first  century  is  an  almost 
necessary  inference ;  for  such  use  of  them  in- 
dicates that  they  were  not  only  already 
written,  but  that  they  were  the  accepted  and 
authorized  foundations  of  Christian  belief,  and 

»See    Dr.    B.    Weiss'    Introduction   to   N.    T.,    Vol.    II, 
§  45,  5. 


140         New  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

no  one  can  imagine  that  they  could  be  ex- 
tensively copied,  distributed,  and  accepted  as 
authoritative  in  a  moment. 

While  the  writer  of  this  new  view  of  the 
early  history  of  the  Christian  religion  thinks 
that  our  Gospel  of  Luke  was  a  late  second 
century  evolution  from  his  imaginary  Gospel 
of  Paul,  and  Matthew  another,  from  the 
Gospel  according  to  the  Hebreios,  he  makes, 
the,  for  him,  very  unfortunate  guess  that  the 
Gospel  of  Mark  is  a  second  century  edition  of 
the  Gospel  of  Peter ^  which  he  has  classed 
among  the  original  first  century  gospels. 

Unfortunately  for  this  hypothesis,  a  consid- 
erable part  of  the  Gospel  according  to  Peter 
has  been  discovered ;  and  a  translation  of  the 
fragment  by  the  distinguished  scholar.  Canon 
J.  Armitage  Eobinson,  editor  of  Cambridge 
Texts  and  Studies,  lies  before  me.  It  was  dis- 
covered by  the  French  Archaeological  Mis- 
sion, Cairo,  in  1886  at  Akhmim^  (Panopolis) 
in  Upper  Egypt,  in  a  grave,  supposed  to  be 
that  of  a  monk.  It  is  a  parchment  manu- 
script, and  is  thus  described  : — 

"  The  Akhmim  manuscript,  six  by  four  and 
three-fourth  inches  in  size,  is  written  in  uncial 
characters,  in  a  sloping  hand  current  in  manu- 
^  Written,  also,  Akhmin. 


Lifjhl  from  the  Land  of  the  Pharaohs     141 

scripts  of  the  seventh  to  the  ninth  century,  and 
contains  on  thirty-three  vellum  leaves  (sixty- 
six  pages)  the  Gospel  according  to  Peter,  and 
the  A_pocaly2)se  of  Enochs 

The  author  of  this  so-called  History  of  the 
Christian  Religion  to  the  Year  WO  holds 
that  these  three  Gospels — of  Paul,  of  Peter, 
and  according  to  the  Hebrews — were  "  sup- 
pressed "  by  the  strong  hand  of  ecclesiastical 
authority,  and  that  our  four  gospels — of  later 
origin,  in  his  opinion — were  "  substituted  "  for 
them.  As  an  actual  instance  of  such  suppres- 
sion and  substitution,  he  quotes  from  Eusebius' 
Ecclesiastical  History,  Book  V^I,  Ch.  12,  where 
is  preserved  part  of  a  letter  of  Serapion, 
bishop  of  Antioch,  written  in  A.  D.  190,  to  the 
Church  of  Rhossus  in  Cilicia,  which  was  under 
his  care.  It  seems  that  some  of  the  people 
there  were  taken  with  the  Gospel  of  Peter,  of 
which  their  bishop  seems  to  have  known  noth- 
ing before  this.  As  soon  as  Serapion  became 
aware  of  the  character  of  this  so-called  "  Gos- 
pel," he  condemned  it  as  unfit  to  be  used, 
because  it  had  evidently  been  forged  in  the 
interest   of   the   Docetse,^  a  heretical  sect  to 

^  That  is  Seemers — people  who  taught  that  Christ  had  not 
really  become  a  man,  but  only  seemed  to  do  so,  assuming, 
not  a  real,  but  a  phantasmal  human  body. 


142         New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

which  the  Apostle  John  seems  clearly  to  refer 
when  he  speaks  of  some  who  denied  that 
"Jesus  Christ  had  come  in  the  flesh." 

This  author  tells  us  : — 

"  In  the  year  190,  a  large  number  of  these 
Gospels  of  Peter  were  found  in  use  by  the 
Church  of  Ehossus  in  Cilicia;  and  so  much 
were  the  Christians  of  that  church  attached 
to  them  that  it  became  necessary  for  Serapion 
to  suppress  them  and  substitute  the  canonical 
gospels  in  their  stead." 

'Now  let  us  lay  this  statement  and  the  facts 
of  the  case  as  stated  in  Eusebius  side  by  side, 
and  see  how  they  agree.  Here  is  a  part  of 
Serapion's  letter : — 

"  We,  brethren,  receive  Peter  and  the  other 
apostles  even  as  Christ ;  but  the  writings  that 
go  falsely  by  their  name  we  reject,  as  we  are 
well  acquainted  with  them,  and  know  also  that 
we  have  not  received  such  handed  down  to 
us."  ...  He  tells  them  that  he  became 
acquainted  with  the  character  of  this  so-called 
gospel  by  borrowing  it  from  some  "  whom  we 
called  Docetag,  for  most  of  its  views  are  those 
of  this  sect." 

The  author  of  this  remarkable  "  history  "  is 
said  to  be  a  judge ;  but  for  a  judge,  he  deals 
strangely    with    the    evidence    before    him. 


Light  from  ilie  Land  of  the  Maraohs     143 

Where  does  he  learn  that  the  four  gospels 
were  "  substituted "  for  this  Gospel  of  Peter 
when  it  was  suppressed?  Neither  Eusebius 
nor  Serapion  tells  of  any  such  substitution ; 
and  all,  except  those  prepossessed  with  the 
author's  theory,  would  understand  that  Sera- 
pion forbade  the  use  of  this  Gospel  of  Peter — 
which  he  calls  a  forgeiy — along  with  the  "  re- 
ceived" gospels,  which  they  evidently  used 
already,  as  nothing  is  said  about  substituting 
them  in  the  place  of  the  forbidden  one  which 
went  falsely  under  the  name  of  Peter. 

Sometimes,  in  looking  up  from  my  writing, 
I  see,  on  a  ridge  a  half-mile  or  so  away,  an 
electric  car  rapidly  crossing  the  field  of  vision, 
and  at  certain  points,  behaving  in  a  strange 
way.  Sometimes  it  will  be  suddenly  elon- 
gated, and  then,  as  quickly  shortened.  Again 
its  whole  shape  will  change,  and  then  it  will 
suddenly  rear  up  as  if  to  jump  a  hurdle,  and 
then  as  quickly  plunge  downward  as  if  about 
to  bury  itself  in  the  earth.  Is  the  car  actually 
thus  eccentric  and  frolicsome  ?  Of  course  I 
know  that  it  is  not,  for  I  have  often  ridden  on 
it  over  that  very  place  and  know  that  the  rails 
are  straight  and  smooth,  and  that  the  cars  be- 
have themselves  decently.  I  know  that  tlie 
pranks  of   which  this  one  seems  to  be  guilty 


144         Neio  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

are  only  apparent :  in  short  that  the  whole 
series  of  strange  antics  is  the  result  of  in- 
equalities in  the  glass  of  the  window  through 
which  I  look.  It  is  all  due  to  the  waves  and 
bubbles  in  the  glass ;  their  effect  being  magni- 
fied by  the  distance.  The  medium  through 
which  we  view  a  thing  has  much  to  do  with 
the  notion  we  get  of  it.  Our  judge  has  looked 
at  this  testimony  through  the  medium  of  his 
suppression — and — substitution  theory. 

The  question  as  to  which  were  the  original 
writings  in  this  case  is  no  longer  a  subject  for 
guessing.  The  discovery  of  the  fragment  of 
the  Gosjjel  according  to  Peter  makes  this 
plain.  We  have  the  testimony  of  such  a 
scholar  as  Dr.  Sanday  of  Oxford  University, 
for  instance,  to  this  effect : — 

"  The  apocryphal  Gospel  of  Peter  is  based 
upon  our  gospels  "  (see  his  Bampton  Lectures, 
especially  p.  301,  note).  He  gives  a  number 
of  instances  in  which  terms  peculiar  to  the 
four  gospels  are  used  in  this  Gospel  according 
to  Peter^  besides  other  evidences  of  its  depend- 
ence on  them ;  and,  referring  to  the  heretical 
changes  and  additions  in  this  so-called  gospel, 
says  of  the  author  of  it:  "It  is  very  plain 
where  he  begins  to  walk  by  himself."  Refer- 
ring to  these  eccentric  features  of  the  forgery 


Light  from  the  Land  of  the  Pharaohs     145 

he  says :  "  In  all  these  ways  the  contrast 
between  the  apocryphal  gospel  and  the  canon- 
ical gospels  is  marked.  The  latter  are  really 
^  a  garden  inclosed.'  Intrusive  elements  seem 
to  be  carefully  kept  out  of  them.  They  pre- 
serve the  type  of  language,  as  it  can  be  abun- 
dantly shown,  that  they  also  preserve  the  type 
of  idea,  which  was  appropriate  just  to  the 
three  years  of  our  Lord's  public  ministry,  and 
no  more." 

Other  testimonies  might  be  given,  but  they 
can  hardly  be  necessary.  The  writer  of  the 
introduction  of  the  Gospel  according  to  Peter 
in  the  Ante-IS^icene  Fathers  (volume  IX), 
though  evidently  not  a  conservative,  does  not 
even  raise  the  question  as  to  the  originality  of 
our  gospels.  His  only  question  is  as  to 
whether  the  forged  writing  does  not  draw  its 
materials  from  other  sources  besides  our  gos- 
pels. He  concludes  that,  "  whether  the  author 
used  any  other  sources  than  the  canonical  gos- 
pels is  a  matter  still  in  doubt." 

But  the  Gospel  according  to  Peter  itself^ 
if  space  could  be  allowed  to  introduce  it, 
would  furnish  the  most  convincing  proof  the 
intelligent  reader  could  ask  that  it  drew 
its  materials  from  all  four  of  the  canonical 
gospels. 


146         New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

'Now  we  all  know  that  materials  must  exist 
before  the  manufactured  article — the  wool  be- 
fore the  cloth,  the  cloth  before  the  coat. 

When  we  apply  the  facts,  as  they  now  stand 
in  the  clear  light  of  discovery,  to  the  theory 
of  our  author,  something  takes  place  very 
much  like  the  vanishing  into  airy  nothingness 
of  a  brilliant,  big  bubble  when  pricked  with  a 
pin. 

So  enamored  is  the  author  of  this  "  his- 
tory "  with  his  theory  of  suppression — and — 
substitution  that  he  leaves  his  period  of  the 
first  two  centuries,  and  like  a  heedless  boy, 
chases  his  bubble  down  through  the  centuries 
to  the  fifth,  W'here  while  he  imagines  it  most 
beautiful,  it  suddenly  bursts  as  he  is  admiring 
its  iridescent  glories.  He  tells  us  (p.  vii. 
Fifth  Ed.)  :— 

"  The  fact  is,  there  are  various  instances 
of  the  displacement  of  older  gospels  and  the 
substitution  of  the  canonical  in  their  stead. 
Even  as  late  as  the  fifth  century  Theodoret 
found  it  necessary  to  suppress  the  Gospel  of 
Tatian  and  substitute  in  its  place  the  four 
gospels." 

He  then  quotes  Theodoret,  as  we  have 
already  done.  "  I  found,  myself,"  says  Tlieod- 
oret,   (a.   d.  430)   "  upwards  of  two   hundred 


Light  from  the  Land  of  the  Pharaohs     147 

such  books  held  in  honor  among  your 
churches,  and  collecting  them  all  together,  I 
laid  them  aside,  and  instead,  introduced  the 
gospels  of  the  four  evangelists."  On  page  326, 
lifth  edition,  the  author  expresses  the  opinion 
that  "  The  fact  that  Theodoret  felt  obliged  to 
suppress  it  is  inconsistent  with  the  theory 
that  it  is  a  harmony  of  the  four  gospels." 

We  all  know  the  truth  now.  It  is  ix,  har- 
mony of  the  four  gospels,  and  could  not  have 
been  older  than  they,  just  as  the  cloth  cannot 
be  older  than  the  wool  of  wiiich  it  is  woven, 
or  the  coat  than  the  cloth  of  which  it  is  made. 
The  four  gospels  were  the  materials  out  of 
which  the  Diatessaron  of  Tatian  {i.  e.,  as  the 
word  means,  the  "  through  four  " — four  gospels, 
or  four  evangelists)  was  made. 

The  discovery  of  the  Diatessaron  of  Tatian 
was  to  the  main  contention  of  the  Tubingen 
School  like  the  stone  from  David's  sling  to  the 
forehead  of  Goliath.  Honest  scholars,  for- 
merly of  that  school,  acknowledge  that  discov- 
eries have  now  demonstrated  the  falsity  of  the 
opinion  of  Baur  and  his  followers  that  the 
gospels  were  not  Avritten  till  the  second  cen- 
tury. We  have  already  seen  the  conclusions 
of  that  brilliant  leader,  Prof.  Adolf  Harnack  of 
Berlin  ;   and  no  honest  man   who  knows  the 


148         New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

facts  will  try  to  stand  by  tbo  contention  of 
this  author  that  our  gospels  were  written 
*'late  in  the  second  century."  There  may  be 
exceptions  in  the  case  of  those  who  though, 
like  him,  not  conscious  of  intentional  dis- 
honesty, yet  have  their  vision  so  warped  by 
theories  that  they  are  incapable  of  seeing  facts 
as  they  are.  In  his  edition  of  1900,  published 
several  years  after  the  discoveries,  mentioned 
in  this  little  book,  were  made,  be  fails  to  men- 
tion them. 

But  we  should  not  judge  him  too  harshly. 
He  is  human,  and  it  could  not  have  been  an 
agreeable  task  to  record  facts  so  destructive  of 
his  theory.  Then,  too,  they  would  undeceive 
so  may  of  his  readers.  Ignorance  is  the 
mother  of  infidelity,  as  well  as  of  superstitious 
devotion. 

In  the  preface  to  the  third  edition  of  this 
work,  republished  in  the  fifth  edition,  on  page 
seven  the  author  says  : — 

"In  conclusion,  we  again  call  attention  to 
the  fact  that  none  of  the  main  propositions  of 
this  work  have  been  in  the  slightest  degree 
impeached  ;  much  less,  overthrown." 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  author  will  not 
repeat  this  in  future  editions.  Should  he  do 
so,   after    being  informed  of  the  facts  which 


Litjht  from  the  Land  of  the  Fharoahs     1,49 

have  been  mentioned,  his  professions  of  candor 
will  fall  under  something  more  than  sus- 
picion. ^ 

The  Gospel  according  to  Peter  and  the  Gosjjel 
according  to  the  Hebrews,  not  only  show  that 
our  four  gospels  were  already  in  existence 
when  they  were  written,  and  thus  are  valu- 
able witnesses  for  them,  but  they  tend  to  con- 
firm them  in  another  way.  The  character  of 
these  productions  stands  in  marked  contrast  to 
that  of  the  four  gospels.  As  soon  as  they 
leave  the  support  of  our  gospels  and  begin 
"to  walk  by  themselves,"  we  see  with  what 
tottering  and  wayward  footsteps  they  pro- 
ceed. When  we  read  the  account  of  the 
resurrection  of  Christ  in  the  Gosioel  according 
to  Peter,  we  find  it  declaring  of  those  who 
were  guarding  the  tomb,  "Again  they  see 
three   men   come   forth   from  the  tomb,  and 

1  It  may  be  thought  that  too  much  has  been  said  about  the 
two  books,  Siq)er7inturnl  Eeligion,  and  The  History  of  the  Chris- 
tian Religion  to  the  Year  Two  Hundred,  but  as  these  are  the 
two  chief  efforts  of  infidelity  in  our  times,  the  one  m  England 
and  the  other  in  America  ;  and  as  the  light  of  discovery  has 
so  strikingly  revealed  their  falsity,  the  course  pursued  has 
seemed  to  me  to  he  the  true  one.  Besides  this,  mere  refer- 
ences to  infidelity  in  general  can  hardly  be  so  satisfactory  to 
any  truth  seeker  as  the  presentation  of  particular  facts 
which  furnish  a  refutation  of  particular  claims  of  infidelity. 
The  concrete  is  more  impressive  than  the  abstract— the  par- 
ticular than  the  general. 


150         New  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

three  of  them  supporting  one,  and  a  cross 
following  them :  and  of  the  two  the  head 
reached  unto  the  heaven,  but  the  head  of  him 
that  was  led  by  them  overpassed  the  heavens. 
And  the  J  heard  a  voice  from  the  heavens,  say- 
ing, '  Thou  hast  preached  unto  them  that  sleep.' 
And  a  response  was  heard  from  the  cross, 
'Yea ! ' "  We  look  at  the  fragments  of  the 
Gospel  acccrrding  to  the  Hebrews,  and  find  one 
of  them  representing  our  Saviour  as  speaking 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  his  '  Mother,'  and  as 
taking  him  by  one  hair  of  his  head  and  trans- 
porting him  to  a  distant  mountain.  We  find 
ourselves,  here,  in  a  different  region  from  that 
of  the  gospels.  We  observe  a  tone  altogether 
different  from  theirs,  and  recognize  in  the 
strange  atmosphere,  mephitic  odors  of  some- 
thing so  akin  to  blasphemy  and  sacrilege,  that 
we  feel  the  disposition  to  rush  away  to  escape 
asphyxia. 

As  a  recent  writer  ^  has  well  said  : — 
"  The  simplicity,  directness  and  conciseness 
of  the  four  is  gone ;  their  doctrinal  purity  is 
departed ;    we  are  now  in  the  realm  of  hag- 
gad  a." 

Canon   Armitage  Robinson,  the  translator, 

^  Rev.   R.    B.    Woodworth   iu   Presbyterian    Quarterly  for 
January,  1895. 


Light  from  the  Land  of  the  Pharaohs     151 

(as  quoted  by  the  same  author)  says  of  the 
results  of  the  examination  of  the  Gospel  accord- 
ing to  Feter : — 

"  The  facts  are  just  as  they  should  be  if  the 
church's  universal  tradition  as  to  the  supreme 
and  unique  position  of  the  four  canonical 
gospels  is  still  to  be  sustained  by  historical 
criticism.  The  words  of  Irenaeus  (a.  d.  200.) 
are  as  true  as  ever  to-day,  and  they  have  re- 
ceived a  new  and  notable  confirmation  by  our 
latest  recovery :  '  So  strong  is  the  position  of 
our  gospels  that  the  heretics  themselves  bear 
witness  to  them,  and  each  must  start  from  them 
to  prove  his  own  doctrine.' " 

We  have  already  seen  that,  when  Ciasca 
showed  the  Apostolic  Visitor  of  the  Catholic 
Copts  the  manuscript  of  the  Diatessaron  in 
the  Yatican  library,  this  ecclesiastic  told  him 
of  another  in  Egypt  in  the  possession  of 
Ghalim  Dos  Ghali,  the  Copt,  'Hhe  Catholic"; 
and  that  it  was  presented  to  the  Apostolic  See 
and  deposited  in  the  Borgian  library.  This 
manuscript,  being  complete,  supplied  what 
was  missing  in  the  other,  and  having  a  bet- 
ter text,  was  useful  in  correcting  it.  Thus 
Egypt  contributed  additional  brightness  to 
the  rays  of  the  "great  light  from  the 
Yatican." 


152         New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

But,  besides  those  already  named,  there  are 
other  lights  from  the  land  of  the  Pharaohs. 

In  July,  1897,  two  young  Oxford  scholars, 
Messrs.  Grenfel  and  Hunt,  were  engaged  in 
explorations  on  the  edge  of  the  Lybian  desert, 
some  130  miles  south  of  Cairo,  on  the  site  of 
the  old  city  of  Oxyrrhynchus,  once  a  place 
of  considerable  size,  as  its  ruins  show,  and  an 
important  Christian  center  in  the  early  cen- 
turies of  our  era.  They  made  many  literary 
discoveries  among  the  rubbish  heaps  of  the 
old  city,  and  one  of  these  has  been  the  subject 
of  much  comment  and  speculation  among 
Christian  scholars.  It  was  a  leaf  from  a 
papyrus  book  containing  Logia,  or  sayings,  of 
our  Lord.  In  it  we  discover,  at  once,  an  echo 
of  the  sayings  of  our  Lord  in  the  gospels ;  and 
one  of  them  is  identical  with  a  saying  recorded 
in  Luke.  Experts  say  that  "  the  papyrus  was 
probably  written  not  later  than  the  year  200." 
While  one  sentence  corresponds  with  one  in 
Luke,  others,  in  words  used,  or  in  the  senti- 
ments expressed,  suggest  both  Matthew's  and 
John's  Gospels  as  sources.  But  along  with 
what  is  familiar,  there  is  much  that  is  novel 
and  not  a  little  obscure  in  these  "  sayings." 
Reading  them  and  trying,  with  all  one's  might, 
to  understand  some  of  them,  makes  one  thank- 


Lujht  from  the  Land  of  the  Pharaohs     153 

fill  that  our  gospels  recorded  our  Saviour's 
"  sayings  "  before  they  were  twisted,  uninten- 
tionally, or  intentionally,  for  the  support  of 
some  theory,  into  forms  which  are  false,  as  we 
see  in  the  apocryphal  gospels  of  heretical  sects, 
or  were  shrouded  with  Delphic  obscurity,  as 
we  find  them  in  some  of  the  Oxyrrhynchus 
Logia. 

]S"ear  this  Logia  fragment,  there  were  dis- 
covered remains  of  Homer's  Iliad  and 
Odyssey,  of  Thucydides  and  other  classical 
writers;  but,  what  is  of  most  interest  to  us, 
papyrus  leaves  containing  seven  verses  of  the 
Epistle  to  the  Romans,  two  pages  of  the 
Gospel  of  John,  and  a  leaf  of  the  Gospel  of 
Matthew  were  found.  The  fragment  of  the 
Gospel  according  to  John  is  thus  spoken  of  by 
the  Secretary  of  the  Egyptian  Exploration 
Fund,  Dr.  W.  C.  Winslow  :— 

"  The  fragment  of  St.  John's  Gospel  forms 
an  important  portion,  small  though  it  be,  of  a 
book  of  about  fifty  pages  containing  that 
gospel,  dating  about  200.  We  have  St.  John 
1 :  23-41,  except  that  verse  thirty-two  is  want- 
ing :  also  St.  John  20 :  11-25,  except  that 
verse  eighteen  is  missing."  After  further 
describing  it,  he  says,  "  The  papyrus  belongs 
to  the  same  class  with  the  Vatican  and  Sinaitic 


154         New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

Codices,"  and  that  it  "  is  a  remarkable  corrob- 
oration of  those  texts  and  of  our  accepted 
version." 

The  fragment  of  Eomans  is  in  large  un- 
cial characters  rather  rudely  made,  and  is 
thought  to  be  a  schoolboy's  exercise ;  and  if 
this  be  true  it  is  an  additional  indication  of 
the  extensive  use  of  the  ISTew  Testament  at  its 
date  of  A.  D.  316. 

But  the  most  interesting  of  these  finds  at 
Oxyrrhynchus  is  a  papyrus  leaf  containing  a 
part  of  the  first  chapter  of  Matthew. 

Dr.  Winslovv  says : — 

"  Its  date  is  fixed  by  some  experts  at  a.  d. 
150,  and  by  the  editors  of  the  society's  publi- 
cations at  fifty  or  sixty  years  later." 

The  Greek  text  seems  to  be  almost  abso- 
lutely identical  with  that  of  Westcott  and 
Hort  on  which  our  Revised  Version  is  founded. 
Prof.Rendel  Harris, by  a  very  close  examination, 
thinks  he  has  discovered  an  apostrophe  which 
this  revised  Greek  text  does  not  show  ;  but 
one  is  tempted  to  ask  whether  this  little  mark 
might  not  have  been  due  to  some  minute  speck 
on  the  papyrus.  The  identity  is  about  as 
nearly  absolute  as  would  be  possible  in  copy- 
ing one  page  of  Greek  from  another.  Indeed 
a  copyist  would  have  to  make  a  good  many 


Li(j1U  from  the  Land  of  the  Pharaohs     155 

trials  before  be  could  reproduce  a  page  of 
Greek  as  perfectly.  Tbis  is  very  remarkable. 
Here  are  two  Greek  texts,  between  the  writ- 
ing of  which  probably  seventeen  centuries 
have  rolled  away,  and  yet  they  are  practically 
identical.  This  tends  to  confirm  what  was 
said  by  Dr.  Hort  long  before  this  discovery : — 

"  If  comparative  trivialities,  such  as  changes 
of  order,  the  omission  or  insertion  of  an  article 
wdth  proper  names,  and  the  like,  are  set  aside, 
the  w^ords  "  (in  the  Greek  Testament)  "  in  our 
opinion  still  subject  to  doubt  can  hardly 
amount  to  a  thousandth  part  of  the  whole 
New  Testament." 

In  transcribing  the  vast  number  of  copies 
which  we  now  have,  a  great  multitude  of  mis- 
takes was  unavoidable  ;  but  the  great  number 
of  copies  enables  us  to  see  what  the  mistakes 
were  in  any  one  copy.  This  has  brought  it 
about  that  the  text  of  the  New  Testament  is 
now  in  a  state  of  certainty  which  far  surpasses 
that  of  the  Greek  or  Latin  classics  that  have 
come  down  to  us.^  This  leaf  of  Matthew, 
probably  the  oldest  scrap  of  writing  contain- 
ing a  page  of  the  Greek  New  Testament  is  a 
bright  light  from  the  land  of  the  Pharaohs, 
showing  the  fixedness  of  the  text  and  its  pres- 

^  See  Appendix. 


156         Neio  Light  on  the  Neio  Testament 

ervation  in  purity  to  our  own  times,  in  spite 
of  the  inevitable  mistakes  of  copyists,  and  tlie 
efforts  of  heretics  to  corrupt  it.  To  all  theories 
of  the  gradual  evolution  of  the  J^ew  Testa- 
ment from  mere  germs  to  its  present  form,  it 
gives  a  death-blow,  a  veritable  cou;p  de  grace. 


YII. 


MANY   LIGHTS   FROM  MANY  LANDS,  OR  LIGHT 
ON  THE  SETTING 

Some  years  ago  there  was  found  on  the 
Acropolis  at  Athens,  built  into  a  long-buried 
wall,  a  slab  of  marble  on  which  appeared,  in 
relief,  a  female  head.  The  archaeologist  in 
charge  of  excavations  which  were  in  progress, 
M.  Kavvadias,  pronounced  it  a  fragment  of 
the  frieze  of  Phidias  on  the  Parthenon  near  at 
hand.  Other  archaeologists  thought  this  im- 
probable. After  much  discussion,  an  artist 
recollected  that,  among  the  specimens  of  the 
Parthenon  frieze  among  the  Elgin  marbles  in 
the  British  Museum,  there  was  a  group  in 
which  appeared  a  female  figure — that  of 
Iris,  the  goddess  of  the  rainbow— without  a 
head.  A  cast  was  taken  from  the  broken  slab 
discovered  on  the  Acropolis,  and  sent  to  Eng- 
land. Parts  of  the  slab  had  been  broken  away, 
possibly  by  a  mason's  hammer  in  fitting  it  into 
the  wall,  so  that,  in  those  parts,  it  did  not  fit 
the  missing  place  in  the  frieze ;   but  it  was 

157 


158         Neiu  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

necessary  only  to  put  the  fragment  into  the 
vacant  place  to  see  that  it  belonged  there. 
Protuberances  and  corresponding  depressions 
jn  the  marble  just  fitted,  and  a  lifted  arm  and 
hand  on  the  frieze  met  with  long-lost  fingers 
holding  the  twist  of  hair  at  the  back  of  the 
head — the  head  of  Iris,  the  rainbow  goddess. 

The  sight  of  such  a  correspondence  flashes 
conviction  more  quickly  than  reasoning,  and 
leads  to  a  conclusion  more  reliable  than  the 
most  labored  arguments  of  the  most  distin- 
guished experts. 

Something  like  this  has  occurred  in  the  case 
of  the  New  Testament. 

When  we  find,  in  any  writing,  incidental 
references  to  passing  events,  to  political  condi- 
tions, to  methods  of  governmental  administra- 
tion, to  names  of  official  positions  and  of  per- 
sons occupying  them,  to  geographical  features 
and  names  of  places,  to  peculiar  customs 
among  the  people  described,  we  have  an  indi- 
cation that  the  writer  had  personal  knowledge 
of  these  particulars  which  only  one  living  in 
the  period  of  these  occurrences  would  be  likely 
to  have.  If  he  implies  that  he  lives  in  the 
time  of  which  he  writes,  and  if  the  most 
searching  investigations  show  more  and  more 
plainl}^,  as  they  are  pursued,  that  his  represen- 


]\[anij  Lights  from  Many  Lands  159 

tations  of  all  these  particulars  are  correct,  we 
never  doubt  that  the  accounts  are  given  by  a 
contemporary  writer,  unless  thorougiily  con- 
vincing evidence  is  adduced  to  prove  that  he 
has  made  a  false  claim. 

If  several  writings,  very  different  from  each 
other  in  their  style  of  composition  and  general 
character,  which  have  always  been  attributed 
to  different  writers,  speak  from  various  points 
of  view  of  the  same  general  subject,  and  all 
have,  in  various  degrees,  these  incidental  ref- 
erences in  them,  then,  it  must  be  admitted 
that  the  improbability  that  the  accounts  origi- 
nated at  a  later  period  is  greatly  increased. 
Such  a  conspiracy  for  deception,  without  any 
imaginable  motive,  would  be  well-nigh  incred- 
ible ;  and  the  amount  of  research  to  be  under- 
taken by  each  individual  to  avoid  mistakes 
would  present  a  task  before  which  even  the 
archaeological  expert  would  quail. 

With  our  habits  of  travel  and  means  of  rapid 
transit,  with  our  newspapers,  magazines,  re- 
views, and  archgeological  publications,  we  can 
hardly  estimate  the  difficulty  of  such  an  un- 
dertaking on  the  part  of  any  writers  of  the 
second  century  to  reproduce  all  the  par- 
ticulars of  the  situation  of  the  first,  as  they 
are     incidentally,     naturally,     and     without 


160         New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

effort  presented  in  the  writings  of  the  New 
Testament. 

Now,  if  we  had  been  at  the  British  Museum 
when  the  plaster  cast  of  the  head  of  Iris  was 
brought  from  Athens,  and  had  merely  seen 
that,  when  put  in  the  place  of  the  frieze  where 
a  head  was  missing,  the  size  of  the  head  was 
as  it  should  be,  and  that  the  pose  of  the  statue 
was  correct,  that  the  outline  of  the  fragment 
fitted  the  outline  of  the  vacant  space  on  the 
frieze,  and  especially,  if  we  saw  that  the  fin- 
gers on  the  head  grasping  the  lock  of  hair  just 
met  an  arm  and  hand  that  fitted  them,  on  the 
frieze,  we  would  ask  no  further  proof  that  this 
fragment  was  the  long  lost  head  of  Iris. 
There  might  be  a  thousand  lines  and  angles  to 
correspond  with  a  thousand  lines  and  angles 
in  the  broken  surface  on  the  frieze,  yet  we 
would  not  wait  to  have  each  one  of  these  cal- 
culated by  mathematical  processes.  The  fitting 
as  we  saw  it  would  be  as  thoroughly  convinc- 
ing as  volumes  of  mathematical  calculations. 

Volumes  might  be,  and  have  been,  written 
on  the  correspondences  of  the  New  Testament 
and  its  setting  ;  but  the  presentation  of  a  very 
few  of  the  multitude  of  particulars  will  be 
sufficiently  convincing. 

These    correspondences,    however,    are    so 


Many  Lights  from  Many  Lands  161 

numerous  that  we  experience  an  emharras 
des  rlchesses.  It  is  hard  to  select  from  them ; 
but  we  may  as  well  begin  at  the  beginning. 
In  connection  with  the  account  of  the  birth  of 
our  blessed  Lord,  Luke  tells  us  that  in  obedi- 
ence to  a  decree  of  Augustus  Caesar  command- 
ing a  universal  "enrollment"  in  the  Koman 
Empire,  Joseph  and  Mary,  being  descendants 
of  King  David,  went  to  their  "own  city," 
Bethlehem,  to  be  enrolled,  and  that  this  en- 
rollment took  place  while  Cyrenius  (Latin, 
Quirinus)  was  governor  of  Syria.  Two  objec- 
tions have  been  raised  to  the  truthfulness  of 
this  statement.  One  is  the  assertion  that 
Cyrenius  did  not  become  governor  of  Syria 
till  several  years  after  our  Saviour's  birth. 
But  the  meaning  may  be  that  the  decree, 
though  issued  earlier,  only  became  completely 
effective  (cVsvsro)  in  all  parts  of  the  province 
during  the  governorship  of  Cyrenius.  But 
another  more  probable  explanation  is  in  the 
fact  that  "  there  has  been  no  serious  refutation 
of  the  view  first  developed  by  Zumpt  that 
Qairinus  was  twice  governor  of  Syria."  ^ 

The  second  objection  was  that  there  was  no 
record  of  such  an  enrollment  earlier  than  the 

^  Maclear's  Historical  Illustrations  of  the  New  Testament 
Scriptures. 


162         New  Light  on  the  Neio   Testament 

reign  of  the  Emperor  Kero.  But  recent  dis- 
coveries by  Messrs.  Grenfel  and  Hunt  at  Oxyr- 
rhynchus  in  Egypt  have  thrown  new  light  on 
this  subject.  "  The  important  matter  is  that 
we  are  now  for  the  first  time  put  in  possession 
of  contemporary  confirmation  of  Luke's  state- 
ment that  '  there  went  out  a  decree  from 
Caesar  Augustus,  that  all  the  world  should  be 
enrolled.'     .     .     . 

"  The  one  point  that  may.  now  be  considered 
as  settled  by  Messrs.  Grenfel  and  Hunt's  dis- 
covery is  that  the  first  census  ordered  by 
Augustus  certainly  occurred  in  the  time  of 
Herod  "  {Bihlia,  December,  1899). 

So  the  objection  is  turned  into  a  confirma- 
tion. We  now  see  the  birth  of  our  blessed 
Lord  linked  not  only  with  the  administration 
of  the  great  world-ruler  and  of  his  representa- 
tive in  the  province  of  Syria,  but  with  a 
definite  and  far-reaching  act  of  that  adminis- 
tration which  was  repeated  at  regular  intervals 
by  his  successors.  The  decree  of  Augustus  is 
now  plainly  seen  to  be  not  an  invention  of 
Luke  but  a  fact  of  history. 

The  fact  stated  by  Luke  (2  :  3)  that  in  Judaea 
each  person  went  to  his  "  own  city  "  to  be  en- 
rolled, also  throws  a  sidelight  on  the  peculiarity 
of   the  application  of  Roman  government  to 


Many  Lights  from  Many  Lands  163 

Jewish  customs  whicli  must  appeal  to  all  who 
are  informed  and  are  capable  of  thinking.  It 
is  most  suggestive  of  the  peculiar  customs  of 
the  Jews  and  of  the  wise  rule  of  Rome  to 
avoid  all  unnecessary  antagonism  with  exist- 
ing customs  and  institutions  among  nations 
under  her  control. 

The  return  from  Egypt  furnishes  another 
view,  in  Matthew's  description  of  it,  of  the 
political  status  of  Judsea  soon  after  the  death  of 
Herod  the  Great.  Why  was  Joseph  '^  afraid  " 
to  return  to  Judsea  when  he  heard  that  Arche- 
laus  reigned  in  the  room  of  his  father  Herod  ? 

The  fact  that  this  young  monster  turned 
loose  his  soldiery  on  the  people  and  slew  three 
thousand  of  them,  soon  after  he  assumed  con- 
trol, in  the  precincts  of  the  temple  itself,  sug- 
gests a  reason.  Why  did  he  consider  Nazareth 
in  Galilee  a  safer  place  of  abode  ?  The  fact 
that  Herod  Antipas  ruled  there  and  that  the 
power  of  Archelaus  was  confined  to  Judaea 
explains  this. 

These  facts  connected  with  the  birth  and 
infancy  of  our  Lord  as  stated  by  these  two 
evangelists  are  but  samples  of  a  vast  number 
of  incidental  references  which  show  the  per- 
fect familiarity  of  the  writers  of  the  New 
Testament    with   the  political  status  in   the 


164         New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

Holy  Land  during  these  times.  The  political 
conditions  of  the  period  covered  by  the  JSTew 
Testament  narrative  were  such  that  no  writer 
could  have  forged  the  accounts  at  a  later  time 
without  falling  into  many  mistakes.  The  gov- 
ernment of  the  country  was  administered  in 
five  distinct  forms  during  tliis  period.  Even 
the  astute,  careful  and  clear-headed  Tacitus, 
writing  near  the  end  of  the  first  century, 
and  doubtless  with  access  to  public  records, 
seems  to  have  been  unable  successfully  to 
thread  the  mazes  of  a  situation  so  compli- 
cated ;  and  the  most  skillful  forger  who,  in  the 
second  century,  should  have  attempted  the 
telling  of  such  a  story  as  that  of  the  gospels 
and  The  Acts  would  have  tripped  at  every 
step.  How  is  it  with  the  New  Testament 
writers  ?  Here  is  the  answer  of  one  who  has 
examined  the  facts  very  carefully  : — 

"  The  writers  of  the  New  Testament  nowhere 
betray  any  perplexity.  They  mark  quite  inci- 
dentally, and  without  the  slightest  trace  of 
strain  or  effort,  the  various  phases,  extraordi- 
nary as  they  were,  of  the  civil  government  of 
Palestine.  Thus,  at  the  era  of  the  advent  we 
find  (1)  the  whole  country  subject  to  the  sole 
rule  of  Herod  the  Great  (Matt.  2:1;  Luke 
1:5);  then  (2)  we  have  his  dominions  parti- 


Many  LigJds  from  Many  Lands  165 

tioned  out  among  his  sous,  while  one,  Archelaus, 
rules  over  Judaea  with  the  title  of  king  (Matt. 
2 :  22) ;  then  (3)  we  see  Judaea  reduced  to  the 
condition  of  a  Koman  province,  while  Galilee, 
Iturgea  and  Trachonitis  continue  under  native 
princes  (Luke  3:1);  then  (4)  in  the  person  of 
Herod  Agrippa  I,  we  have  the  old  kingdom 
of  Palestine  restored  (Acts  12 : 1) ;  and  finally 
(5)  we  observe  the  whole  country,  reduced  un- 
der Eoman  rule  andEoman  procurators  (Felix, 
Acts  23  :  24 ;  Festus,  Acts  2-1 :  27),  while  a  cer- 
tain degree  of  deference  is  paid  to  Herod 
Agrippa  II,  to  whom  Festus  refers  Paul's  case 
as  presenting  special  difficulties."  ^ 

But  this  is  only  the  vestibule.  I  will  not  at- 
tempt to  exhibit  in  detail  the  many  complica- 
tions which  would  have  furnished  snares  and 
pitfalls  for  any  forger  who  might  have  at- 
tempted, in  the  second  centurj^,  to  write  such 
accounts.  The  writer  just  quoted  has  summed 
up  the  difficulties  which  such  an  attempt  would 
have  encountered  under  five  heads  : — 

1.  The  political  condition  of  Palestine — just 
mentioned. 

2.  Roman  emperors  and  administrators. 

3.  Jewish  kings  and  princes. 

4.  Condition  of  the  Jewish  nation. 

^  Maclear's  Historical  Illustrations. 


166         Neio  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

5.     The  Greek  and  Eoman  world. 

Under  each  of  these  heads,  as  every  reader 
must  know,  there  is  an  intricate  array  of  par- 
ticulars. This  makes  it  plain,  not  only  that 
the  task  of  the  forger  of  the  second  century 
would  have  been  an  impossible  one,  but  that 
the  subject  is  too  large  to  pursue  further  in 
this  direction. 

The  Holy  Land  itself  is  a  witness  to  the 
truth  of  the  narratives  in  the  gospels  so  far  as 
testimony  of  such  a  character  can  be  confirm- 
atory. The  land  as  it  now  lies,  after  all  the 
changes  of  centuries  effected  by  Komans,  Sara- 
cens, Crusaders,  the  deadening  hand  of  the 
Turk,  and  the  great  forces  of  nature  operating 
on  its  unprotected  surface  for  almost  two  mil- 
lenniums, is  still  so  striking  as  the  scene  and 
setting  of  the  wonderful  story  that  it  has  been 
called  the  Fifth  Gospel.  Modern  surveys,  ex- 
plorations and  excavations  are  continually 
adding  to  our  knowledge  of  the  almost  in- 
numerable correspondences  between  the  Land 
and  the  Book.  Just  before  writing  this  there 
has  come  under  my  eye  the  announcement  of 
the  identification  of  Bethabara  where  John  the 
Baptist  baptized  on  the  Jordan,  at  the  south- 
ern end  of  the  Lake  of  Galilee— -a  discovery 
which  clears  up  difficulties  in  the  narrative 


Many  Lights  from  Many  Lands  167 

created  by  the  location  of  the  traditional  site ; 
and  new  discoveries,  tested  by  the  application 
of  scientific  principles,  and  freed  from  the  de- 
lusions of  legend,  are  continually  contributing 
to  our  knowledge  of  ''  those  holy  fields "  (as 
said  the  dying  king  centuries  ago), 

"Over  whose  acres  walked  those  blessed  feet 
Which,  fourteen  hundred  years  ago,  were  nailed 
For  our  advantage,  on  the  bitter  cross." 

The  journeys  and  experiences  of  the  Apostle 
Paul,  as  related  in  The  Acts  and  referred  to  in 
his  Epistles,  find  a  no  less  striking  confirma- 
tion in  the  setting  of  each  incident  as  seen  in 
the  light  of  modern  discovery. 

Wood's  discoveries  at  Ephesus^  have  thrown 
a  flood  of  light  on  the  account  of  Paul's  ex- 
periences there  as  given  in  the  nineteenth 
chapter  of  The  Acts. 

From  the  accounts  of  Ephesus  given  by  his- 
torians, especially  by  Pliny  and  Strabo,  and 
from  coins  and  inscriptions  and  the  revelations 
of  exploration,  it  is  now  easy  to  see  why  the 
temple  of  Diana  (Artemis)  of  the  Ephesians 
was  reckoned  one  of  the  seven  wonders  of  the 
world,   and  why  anything   which    seemed  to 

^  Discoveries  at  Ephesus,  by  J.  T.  Wood,  F.  S.  A.,  Lon- 
don, 1877. 


168         New  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

threaten  interests  connected  with  the  worship 
conducted  in  this  marvel  of  architecture,  which 
was,  at  once,  the  chief  shrine  and  treasury  of 
western  Asia,  might  naturally  arouse  such  a 
tumult  as  that  which  Luke  describes,  and  lead 
to  the  gathering  of  the  great  assemblage  in 
that  vast  theater  whose  remains  indicate  that 
twenty  thousand  people  could  be  seated  there. 
The  mention  of  the  "  silver  shrines  of  Diana," 
the  "  no  small  gain  "  of  the  "  craftsmen  "  en- 
gaged in  this  manufacture,  ^'  the  temple  of  the 
great  goddess  Diana,"  and  "her  magnificence," 
the  indication  of  the  wide  extent  of  the  cult — 
*'  whom  all  Asia  and  the  world  worshipeth  " 
— the  rushing  "  with  one  accord  into  the  the- 
ater," the  expressions,  "  town  clerk "  (gram- 
mateus),  "  the  city  of  the  Ephesians  is  the  wor- 
shiper (neokoros — temple-sweeper)  of  the  great 
Goddess  Diana,"  "the  image  which  fell  down 
from  Jupiter,"  deputies  (anthupatoi),  "lawful 
assembly  "  (ecclesia),  all  occurring  in  the  space 
of  twelve  verses,  present  to  us  unique  features 
of  an  occurrence  of  which  Ephesus,  as  history 
and  archaeology  combine  in  showing  it  to  have 
been,  was  the  scene,  and  the  only  possible 
scene  in  all  the  world.  JSTo  jewel  ever  fitted 
its  setting  more  perfectly. 

When  we  go  back  and  see  Paul  in  Macedonia 


Many  Lights  from  Many   Lands  169 

we  find  similar  correspondences  between  the 
narrative  of  Luke  and  the  environment  in  each 
place  as  history  and  recent  discovery  present  it. 

For  instance,  Philippi  is  said  to  be  (Acts 
16 :  12)  "  the  chief  city  of  that  part  of  Mace- 
donia, and  a  colony."  The  word  translated 
"  part "  is  a  peculiar  one  as  here  used,  and  the 
following  throws  new  light  on  it : — 

"In  Chapter  XYI,  which  contains  an  ac- 
count of  Paul's  visit  to  Philippi  in  Macedonia, 
a  word  is  used  (Meris)  to  designate  the  '  dis- 
trict '  in  Macedonia  in  which  it  was  situated, 
which  occurs  nowhere  else  in  that  significa- 
tion, so  that  its  genuineness  has  been  justly 
suspected.  But  among  the  Fayum  documents 
a  considerable  number  make  use  of  just  the 
same  word  to  describe  divisions  in  that 
region."  The  account  shows  us,  too,  all  the 
accompaniments  of  a  "  colony  " — that  peculiar 
institution  of  the  Roman  Empire,  entirely  dif- 
ferent from  a  colony  in  the  modern  sense — by 
which  cities  in  different  provinces  of  the  em- 
pire, for  some  special  service,  were  honored 
with  the  title,  privileges  and  form  of  govern- 
ment which  made  them  Romes  in  miniature. 

At  Thessalonica  we  find  companions  of 
Paul  brought  before  "  the  rulers  of  the  city  " 
(Gr.  Politarchai).     This  peculiar  name  is  said 


no         NexD  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

not  to  occur  in  any  other  place  in  Greek  lit- 
erature. Yet  an  arch  only  recently  demol- 
ished in  Thessalonica  (now  Salonika)  bore  an 
inscription  which  stated  that  it  was  erected 
when  certain  persons,  whose  names  are  given, 
were  *'  politarchs  of  the  city." 

We  may  not  tarry  ^vith  Paul  at  Athens  to 
study  the  vivid  portrayal  of  the  scene  in 
which  he  stands  among  the  Stoics  and  Epicure- 
ans to  preach  the  gospel  of  Christ,  but  we  can 
obtain  an  instructive  glimpse  through  tho 
very  intelligent  eyes  of  another.  Prof.  Ernst 
Curtius  of  the  University  of  Berlin,  the  great 
Greek  scholar  and  historian,  said  in  the  "  Ke- 
ports  of  the  Koyal  Academy  of  Sciences  "  in 
1893  ;  under  the  title  Paulus  in  Athens : — 

''Whoever  approaches  the  report  as  given 
in  The  Acts  without  pre-judgments  and  in 
fairness,  cannot,  in  my  conviction,  do  other- 
wise than  accept  the  account  as  that  of  a  well- 
informed  and  truthful  witness."  After  giving 
his  grounds  for  this  belief,  he  says  : — 

"  I  can  only  conclude  as  I  began,  that  it  is 
my  firm  conviction  that  whoever  denies  the 
historical  character  of  the  report  of  Paul  in 
Athens  tears  out  of  the  history  of  mankind 
one  of  its  most  important  pages." 

When  we  retrace  our  steps  again,  and  find 


Many  Lights  from  3Iany  Lands  171 

Paul  in  Paphos  on  the  island  of  Cyprus,  we 
are  on  the  scene  of  another  triumph  of  the 
truth.  Luke  gives  the  governor,  Sergius 
Paulus,  the  title  anthupatos  (translated 
"  deputy  "  in  King  James'  version),  and  the 
accusation  of  inaccuracy  was  made  against  his 
account;  but  besides  the  statement  of  Dio 
Cassius  showing  that  he  was  correct,  a  coin  of 
Cyprus  and  an  extended  inscription,  both  of 
the  reign  of  Claudius,  have  been  discovered, 
containing  the  names  of  persons  who  were 
proconsuls,  and  with  this  title,  anthupatos,  on 
them,  thus  fully  vindicating  Luke's  accuracy. 

These  are  but  samples  of  almost  innumer- 
able correspondences  that  might  be  mentioned, 
but  it  is  hoped  that  they  are  sufficient. 

There  were  parts  broken  away  from  the 
outer  edges  of  the  fragment  of  marble  bear- 
ing the  bas-relief  of  a  female  head  and  fingers 
of  a  hand,  and  a  very  hardy  objector  might 
say  that  we  do  not  know  that,  if  preserved, 
they  would  have  fitted  into  the  still  vacant 
spaces  on  the  frieze.  Ordinary  mortals,  how- 
ever, would  feel  perfectly  sure,  from  the  per- 
fect fitting  of  that  which  was  found,  that  these 
little  fragments,  if  found,  would  fit  into  their 
places,  too.  Just  so  the  general  and  perfect 
fitting  of  the  New  Testament  into  its  environ- 


1*72         New  Light  on  the  New   Testament 

ment,  so  far  as  it  has  been  determined  by  the 
strictest  scientific  methods — a  fitting  becom- 
ing more  evident  with  each  new  discovery — 
goes  to  confirm  the  conclusion  that,  could  that 
environment  be  perfectly  known,  the  corre- 
spondence would  be  perfect.  The  fitting  of 
the  head  of  Iris  to  her  body  on  the  Pentelic 
marble  of  the  frieze  is  hardly  more  convincing 
of  the  fact  that  it  belongs  there  than  are  the 
facts  at  which  we  have  been  looking,  that  the 
New  Testament  belongs  to  its  traditional  let- 
ting, the  apostolic  age. 

We  have  seen  many  lights  falling  on  the 
l^ew  Testament,  all  combining  to  make  clear 
the  fact  that  it  was  not  Avritten  in  the  second 
century,  from  uncertain  traditions,  but  in  the 
first,  by  men  who  were  thoroughly  informed 
about  the  great  facts  of  the  redemption 
through  Christ.  We  have  more  accurate  and 
detailed  contemporary  testimony,  b}''  thor- 
oughly competent  witnesses,  about  Christ 
than  about  any  other  historical  character  of 
ancient  times.  It  would  be  more  rational  to 
doubt  that  Julius  Ca3sar  laid  the  foundation  of 
the  Koman  Empire  than  that  Christ  founded 
that  greater  empire,  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven. 
With  the  progress  of  discovery,  light  after 
light  has  risen  to  shine  on  the  New  Testa- 


Many  Lights  from  Many  Lands  1*73 

ment,  each  adding  to  the  evidence  of  the  re- 
liableness of  its  record ;  but  the  clearest  light 
of  all  is  not  that  whicli  shines  upon  it,  but 
that  which  shines  from  it — the  portraiture  of 
hira  who  is  the  light  of  the  world. 

He  is  no  shadowy  being  encompassed  with  a 
mist  of  legend,  but  a  clearly  drawn  historical 
character,  yet  entirely  unique,  rising  infinitely 
beyond  any  other  the  world  has  ever  seen; 
^vho,  though  he  lived  a  public  life  of  only 
about  three  years,  and  never  led  an  army  or 
wrote  a  book,  has,  yet,  influenced  the  human 
race  as  no  other  man  or  set  of  men  can  be 
claimed  to  have  done.  With  Jean  Paul  Eich- 
ter,  we  see  in  him  that  One,  "  who,  being  the 
holiest  among  the  mighty,  the  mightiest  among 
the  holy,  lifted,  with  his  pierced  hand,  empires 
off  their  hinges  and  turned  the  stream  of  the 
centuries  out  of  its  channel,  and  still  governs 
the  ages." 

These  grand  words  impress  us  with  the 
greatness  of  a  Being,  who,  though  a  man,  has 
no  equal.  The  mightiest,  the  holiest,  because 
he  is  God  as  well  as  man.  But  without 
divine  inspiration,  even  genius  cannot  venture 
to  describe  Christ  except  in  general  terms. 
Genius  can  give  us  but  a  glimpse  of  the 
glorious  personality — yea,  can   but  touch  the 


174         New  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

outer  fringe  of  his  robe.  Whenever  men, 
uninspired,  endeavor  to  give  the  detailed 
portrait  of  Christ,  they  always  fail.  There  is 
always  some  act,  some  expression,  some  tone 
in  the  utterance,  that  is  out  of  keeping  with 
the  Christ  we  iind  portrayed  in  the  New 
Testament. 

Indeed,  it  seems  impossible  for  mere  human 
genius  to  depict  even  a  merely  human  ideal. 
George  Eliot,  with  all  her  wonderful  insight 
into  character  and  skill  in  presenting  it  to  her 
readers,  yet  fails  when  she  tries  to  paint  per- 
fection. Her  Daniel  Deronda  is  a  failure,  be- 
cause she  tried  to  represent  him  as  faultless.^ 
The  result  has  been  described,  on  account  of 
the  indefiniteness  of  the  portraiture,  as  a 
''  moral  mist  "  instead  of  a  man. 

How  different  it  is  with  the  writers  of  the 
New  Testament !  They  do  not  deal  in  mere 
generalities  and  indefinite  expressions  such  as 
lifting  empires  off  their  hinges,  and  turning 
the  stream  of  the  centuries.  They  do  not 
merely  tell  us  that  he  is  the  holiest  and  the 
mightiest,  but  let  us  see  him  doing  deeds  and 
speaking  words  and  exhibiting  a  spirit,  which 
make  us  feel  that  he  is.  While  they  never 
satisfy  a  vulgar  curiosity  about  his  person — 

'  The  Church's  One  Foundation,  pp.  94,  95. 


Many  Lights  from  Many  Lands  175 

never  even  giving  a  hint  about  his  personal 
appearance — yet  they  tell  us  definitely  what  he 
did,  what  he  said,  and  sometimes,  with  what 
gesture  or  look  he  spoke.  We  catch  utterances 
of  the  greatest  beauty  and  sublimity  and 
force,  and  yet  never  think  of  him  as  merely  a 
great  poet  or  great  orator.  He  exhibits  the 
highest  order  of  courage,  endurance,  and  self- 
command,  and  yet  we  never  think  of  him  as 
merely  the  greatest  of  heroes.  He  does  deeds 
and  speaks  words  of  unspeakable  kindness, 
and  yet  we  never  think  of  him  as  merely  the 
greatest  philanthropist.  We  always  feel,  as 
we  look  at  this  portraiture  on  the  pages  of  the 
evangelists,  that  there  is  in  him  something  far, 
yea  infinitely,  above  all  this.  When  we  be- 
hold him  a  new-born  infant  we  feel  that  we 
must  bow  in  worship  with  the  wise  men  and 
the  shepherds.  When  we  see  him  as  a  youth, 
with  the  doctors,  we  cannot  but  wonder  at 
his  wisdom  ;  and  in  the  synagogue  at  Nazareth, 
the  wonder  at  the  gracious  words  which  pro- 
ceeded out  of  his  mouth,  which  his  own  towns- 
folk felt,  is  still  felt  by  us  as  we  read. 
Whether  with  authority,  he  teaches  the  peo- 
ple, or  with  unflinching  courage,  exposes  and 
rebukes  the  hypocrisy  of  the  scribes  and 
Pharisees,   or    with   tenderness,   forgives   the 


176         New  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

woman  who  was  a  sinner,  or  in  lowliness, 
receives  sinners  and  eats  with  them,  or  stoops 
to  wash  his  disciples'  feet,  we  feel  that  here  is 
one  different  from  all  other  men.  Whether 
we  see  him  calming  the  sea,  or  filling  the  net 
with  fishes,  or  feeding  the  multitudes,  or  re- 
calling the  dead  to  life,  or  bearing  the  stripes 
and  the  thorn-crowning,  or  hanging  on  the 
cross,  or  rising  from  the  tomb,  or  ascending 
to  his  Father,  our  hearts  thrill  with  the  im- 
pulse to  adore,  to  worship,  to  love  and  serve 
him.  It  is  this  impulse,  not  momentary,  but 
lasting  through  the  ages,  that  sends  the  mis- 
sionaries across  the  seas  and  makes  martyrs 
endure  torture  and  death — that  nerved  a  Paul 
to  work  and  suffer  and  die  in  the  first 
century,  and  Chinese  Christians  in  the  end  of 
the  nineteenth. 

Well  might  Irenaeus  speak  of  these  writings 
as  those  "  in  which  Christ  is  enthroned,"  and 
well  may  Robertson  Nicoll  say  that  "  what  is 
needed  is  that  we  should  find  out  for  ourselves, 
in  patient  study,  the  Christ  of  the  gospels,  not 
the  Christ  of  The  Institutes^  or  the  Christ  of 
The  Imitation,  or  the  Christ  of  modern  bio- 
graphies ; "  and  well  may  he  say  of  the  won- 
derful narrative  of  these  gospels,  "  What 
stones  the  building  is  made  of  we  cannot  tell. 


Many  Lights  from  Many  Lands  177 

One  thing  is  certain.  Not  only  does  it  contain 
a  true  history,  but  it  is  a  house  not  made  with 
hands."  ^ 

Yes,  the  person  is  divine  and  the  portraiture 
is  divine.  Whenever  we  see  Christ — from  the 
manger  to  the  mount  of  the  ascension — the 
Adeste  fideles  is  our  call  to  all  that  love  him ; 
and  our  very  hearts  cry  out,  "  O  come,  let  us 
adore  him !  " 

"Wherefore  God  also  hath  highly  exalted 
him,  .  .  .  that  at  the  name  of  Jesus  every 
knee  should  bow,  of  things  in  heaven,  and 
things  in  earth,  and  things  under  the  earth ; 
and  that  every  tongue  should  confess  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  Lord,  to  the  glory  of  God  the 
Father." 

But  the  loorli  which  Christ  has  done  and  is 
doing  in  the  world,  through  his  gospel 
recorded  in  the  J>[ew  Testament,  is  a  proof 
that  the  record  is  true  and  divine — "  the 
record,  that  God  hath  given  ...  in  his 
son."  Kot  only  are  the  secondary  effects 
wonderful,  so  that  Christendom  and  civilization 
are  practically  coterminous,  but  there  is  a 
greater  proof :  In  millions  of  human  beings — 
millions  multiplying  as  the  ages  pass— a  work 
is  progressing  through  which  each  one  is  des- 

'  The  Church's  One  Foundation,  by  W.  Kobertson  Nicoll. 


178         New  Light  on  the  New  Testament 

tined  to  shine  forth  as  the  sun  in  the  kingdom 
he  has  founded  and  is  bringing  to  its  perfec- 
tion. The  process,  in  its  different  stages,  is 
seen  in  every  community,  every  household, 
every  individual,  that  has  truly  received  his 
gospel ;  and  is  to  the  world,  looking  on,  a 
proof  of  its  truth  and  divine  efficacy.  The 
world  beholds  sinful  men  becoming  holy,  and, 
lighted  with  wisdom  from  on  high,  walking  as 
children  of  light. 

But  the  fullest  and  most  joyful  proof  is 
reserved  for  the  illumined  and  the  saved, 
themselves.  These,  and  these  only,  can  say 
that  "  God,  who  commanded  the  light  to  shine 
out  of  darkness,  hath  shined  in  our  hearts,  to 
give  the  light  of  the  knowledge  of  the  glory 
of  God  in  the  face  of  Jesus  Christ."  Each  of 
these,  and  these  only,  can  use  Paul's  words ; 
"I  know  him  whom  I  have  believed,  and  I  am 
persuaded  that  he  is  able  to  guard  that  which 
I  have  committed  unto  him  against  that  day." 

May  we  all  know  thee,  the  only  true 
God,  and  Jesus  Christ  whom  thou  hast 
sent. 


APPENDIX 


NOTE  1 

Justin  Martyr's  Use  of  the  Gospels 

1  Apology,  Ch.  xv 

"  What  Christ  Himself  taught  "— 

*'  Concerning  chastity  he  uttered  such  sentiments  as 
these:  '  Whosoever  looketh  on  a  woman  to  lust  after  her 
hath  committed  adultery  with  her  already  in  his  heart  before 
God.'" 

"And,  'If  thy  right  eye  offend  thee,  cut  it  out,  for  it  is 
better  for  thee  to  enter  into  the  kingdom  of  heaven  with 
one  eye  than  having  two  eyes  to  be  cast  into  everlasting 
fire.'" 

"  And,  '  Whosoever  shall  marry  her  that  is  divorced  from 
another  husl)and  committeth  adultery. '  ' ' 

"And,  'There  are  some  who  have  made  themselves 
eunuchs  for  the  kingdom  of  heaven's  sake;  but  all  cannot 
receive  this  saying. '  So  that,  all,  who  by  human  law,  are 
twice  married,  are  in  the  eye  of  our  INIaster  sinners,  and 
those  who  look  upon  a  woman  to  lust  after  her.  For  not 
only  he  who  in  acts  commits  adultery  is  rejected  by  him, 
but  also  he  who  desires  to  commit  adultery;  since  not  only 
our  works,  but  also  our  thoughts,  are  open  before  God. 
And  many,  both  men  and  women,  who  have  been  Christ's 
disciples  from  childhood,  remain  pure  at  the  age  of  sixty  or 
seventy  years ;  and  I  boast  that  I  could  produce  such  from 
every  race  of  men.  For,  what  shall  I  say,  too,  of  the  count- 
less multitude  of  those  who  have  reformed  intemperate 
habits  and  learned  these  things  ?  For  Christ  called  not  the 
179 


180  A]ypciidix 

just  nor  the  chaste  to  repentance,  but  the  ungodly  and  the 
licentious  and  the  unjust,  his  words  being,  '  I  came  not  to 
call  the  righteous,  but  sinners,  to  repentance.'  For  the 
heavenly  Father  desires  rather  the  repentance  than  the 
punishment  of  the  sinner." 

"And  of  our  love  to  all  he  taught  thus:  '  If  ye  love  them 
that  love  you  what  new  thing  do  ye  ?  For  even  fornicators 
do  this.  But  I  say  unto  you,  pray  for  your  enemies,  and 
love  them  that  hate  you,  and  pray  for  them  that  despitefully 
use  you. '  ' ' 

*'  And  that  we  should  communicate  to  the  needy  and  do 
nothing  for  glory,  he  said:  'Give  to  him  that  asketh,  and 
from  him  that  would  borrow  turn  not  away ;  for  if  ye  lend 
to  them  of  whom  ye  hope  to  receive,  what  new  thing  do  ye? 
Even  the  publicans  do  this.  Lay  not  up  for  yourselves 
treasure  upon  earth,  where  moth  and  rust  doth  corrupt,  and 
where  robbers  break  through,  but  lay  up  for  yourselves 
treasure  in  heaven,  where  neither  moth  nor  rust  doth  cor- 
rupt. For,  what  is  a  man  profited  if  he  shall  gain  the  whole 
world  and  lose  his  own  soul  ?  or  what  shall  a  man  give  in 
exchange  for  it  ?  Lay  up  treasure,  therefore,  where  neither 
moth  nor  rust  doth  corrupt. '  ' ' 

"And,  'Be  ye  kind  and  merciful,  as  your  Father  also  is 
kind  and  merciful,  and  maketh  his  sun  to  rise  on  sinners 
and  the  righteous  and  the  wicked.  Take  no  thought  what 
ye  shall  eat  or  what  ye  shall  put  on.  Are  ye  not  better 
than  the  birds  and  the  beasts?  And  God  feedeth  them. 
Take  no  thought,  therefore,  what  ye  shall  eat  or  what  ye 
shall  put  on;  for  your  heavenly  Father  knoweth  that  ye 
have  need  of  these  things.  But  seek  ye  the  kingdom  of 
heaven,  and  all  these  things  shall  be  added  unto  you.  For 
where  his  treasure  is,  there  also  is  the  mind  of  man . '  " 

"And,  'Do  not  these  things  to  be  seen  of  men;  other- 
wise, ye  have  no  reward  of  your  father  which  is  in 
heaven.'  " 


Appendix  181 

One  who  can  read  this  one  chapter  of  the  first  Apology^ 
and  say  that  Justin  did  not  make  use  of  our  gospels  must 
either  be  demented  or  possessed  of  a  hardihood  truly 
sublime. 

NOTE  2 

Early  Use  of  the  Gospel  of  John 

Basilides,  the  Gnostic  (a.  d.  125),  is  found  quoting  the 
Gospel  of  John:  "That  which  is  said  in  the  gospels:  {ru 
ksyotxsvov  iu  :o£?  ebayyeUin^)  He  was  the  true  light  which 
lighteth  every  man  that  cometh  into  the  world."  Hippo- 
lytus'  Refutation  of  all  Heresies,  vii,  10. 

yle^o/jtcvov  had  just  been  used  by  Basilides  in  quoting 
Genesis  1 :  3,  and  is  used  evidently  as  the  equivalent  of 
ytypaizlai.      See  Anie-Nicene  Fathers,     Vol.  V,  p.  7.    Note. 

As  to  the  use  of  the  Gospel  of  John  by  Poly  carp,  Papias, 
Polycrates  and  other  very  early  writers,  which  many  at- 
tempt to  explain  away  by  a  multitude  of  suppositions  and 
assumptions,  Bishop  Lightfoot  has  this  to  say  : — 

"By  a  sufficient  number  of  assumptions  which  lie  beyond 
the  range  of  verification,  the  evidence  may  be  set  aside. 
But  the  early  existence  and  recognition  of  the  Fourth  Gospel 
is  the  one  simple  postulate  that  explains  all  the  facts.  The 
law  of  gravitation  accounts  for  the  various  phenomena  of 
motion — the  falling  of  a  stone,  the  jet  of  a  fountain,  the 
orbits  of  the  planets,  etc.  It  is  quite  possible  for  anyone, 
who  is  disposed,  to  reject  this  explanation  of  nature.  Pro- 
vided that  he  is  allowed  to  postulate  a  new  force  for  every 
new  fact  with  which  he  is  confronted,  he  has  nothing  to  fear. 
He  will  then 

*  gird  the  sphere 
With  centric  and  concentric  scribbled  o'er, 
Cycle  and  epicycle,  orb  in  orb,' 

happy  in  his  immunity.     But  the  other  theory  will  prevail, 
nevertheless,  by  reason  of  its  simplicity. ' ' 


182  Appendix 

NOTE  3 

The  Lewis  Palimpsest  and  the  New  Testament 
Text 

It  is  beside  the  purpose  of  this  little  book  to  enter  into 
any  extended  discussion  of  the  textual  characteristics  of  the 
Lewis  palimpsest  or  of  any  of  the  documents  mentioned. 
Yet  I  cannot  refrain  from  suggesting  that,  while  our  reliance 
for  the  true  text  must  be  mainly  upon  the  great  uncials,  yet 
in  cases  where  they  present  insuperable  difficulties,  and 
where  we  find  those  difficulties  removed  by  this  palimpsest 
which  may  be  the  very  earliest  of  all  versions,  and  therefore 
made  from  Greek  manuscripts  much  earlier  than  any  to 
w^hich  we  have  access,  its  testimony  is  not  to  be  despised — 
nay  is  rather  to  be  welcomed  and  trusted.  Two  cases  w-hich 
appear  to  me  to  be  of  this  kind  are  Matt.  27 :  9  and 
John  18  :  28. 

The  Lewis  palimpsest  omits  "Jeremiah  "  in  the  first,  and 
in  the  second  reads  thus  :  * '  But  they  went  not  into  the 
judgment-hall,  that  they  should  not  be  defiled  whilst  they 
were  eating  the  unleavened  bread."  The  acceptance  of 
these  texts  relieves  two  difficulties— the  attributing  (in  our 
received  text)  of  a  quotation  from  Zechariah  to  Jeremiah 
(in  Matthew  27  :  9),  and  confusion  as  to  the  time  of  eating 
the  passover  by  Christ  and  his  apostles  (in  John  18 :  28). 

The  Diatessaron,  also,  omits  "Jeremiah,"  but  has  "pass- 
over  "  in  John  18  :  28.  The  Lewis  palimpsest  furnishes  the 
explanation,  making  the  word  "passover"  here  mean  the 
feast  of  the  passover — unleavened  bread. 

NOTE  4 

The  Date  of  the  Apology  of  Aristides 

Professor  Harris  is  inclined  to  think  that  the  ApoJogy  was 

not  presented  to  Hadrian  on  the  occasion  named,  but  either 

to  Hadrian  and  Antoninus  Pius  during  the  few  months  in 

A.  D.  138   when   they   were    colleagues,  or    to  Antoninus 


Appendix  183 

alone,  after  the  death  of  Hadrian.  The  sign  of  the  plural 
with  the  word  "majesty"  and  with  the  Syriac  adjectives 
for  "venerable  and  merciful,"  as  well  as  the  imperatives 
'•  take  and  read  "  would  incline  him  to  believe  that  it  was 
addressed  to  the  two  emperors,  but  for  the  fact  that  the 
address  ' '  O  king ' '  occurs  constantly  in  the  Apology  in  the 
Syriac  as  well  as  in  the  Greek  and  the  Armenian.  This  in- 
clines him  to  believe  that  these  plurals  are  erroneous  and 
that  the  Apology  was  probably  addressed  to  Antoninas  Pius 
alone  after  the  death  of  Hadrian. 

In  such  a  case  we  can  only  weigh,  as  best  we  may,  the 
probabilities. 

We  know,  for  one  thing,  that  it  is  not  unusual  to  find  in- 
terpolations and  other  changes  in  writings  of  the  second  cen- 
tury, especially  in  translations.  This  Syriac  copy  of  the 
Apology  abounds  in  them,  and  if  we  make  the  not  improba- 
ble supposition  that  this  second  address  and  the  plurals 
named  are  of  this  character,  then  there  is  absolutely  nothing 
to  keep  us  from  believing  that  the  Apology  was  addressed  to 
Hadrian  in  the  eighth  year  of  his  reign. 

The  first  address  of  this  Syriac  copy,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered, is  ''Here  follows  the  defense  which  Aristides  the 
philosopher  made  before  Hadrian  the  kmg  on  behalf  of  rever- 
ence for  God,"  while  that  of  the  Armenian  fragment  reads 
"To  the  Emperor  Csssar  Hadrian  from  Aristides."  The 
address  is  not  in  the  Greek  because  of  its  incorporation  in 
the  story  of  Barlaam  and  Josaphat;  but  it  begins,  "I,  O 
King,"  etc.,  the  original  Greek  thus  showing  that  it  was 
addressed  to  only  one  sovereign. 

To  accept  the  conclusion  of  Profassor  Harris,  in  the  words  of 
the  Introduction  to  the  Apology  of  A  ristides  in  the  Ante-Nicene 
Fathers,  "requires  us  to  suppose  that  Eusebius  was  wrong; 
that  Jerome  copied  his  error;  [and  it  must  be  remembered 
that  Jerome  .says  that  it  was  extant  in  his  day,  and  his  de- 
scription of  it  would  seem  to  indicate  his  personal  knowl- 


184  Appendix 

edge  of  it]  that  the  Armenian  version  curiously  fell  into  the 
same  mistake;  and  that  the  Syriac  translation  is,  at  this 
point,  exceptionally  faithful." 

Now,  it  is  extremely  improbable  that  Eusebius  who  states 
that  it  was  presented  to  Hadrian,  should  have  been  mistaken 
in  this  case.  The  Apology  was  well  known  in  his  day,  and 
copies  of  it  seem  to  have  been  abundant — "preserved  by  a 
great  number  even  to  the  present  day, ' '  are  his  words.  But, 
what  would  seem  fairly  decisive,  he  tells  us  that  he  had  in 
his  hands  the  Apology  of  Aristides'  companion  apologist, 
Quadratus.  He  must  have  seen  with  his  own  eyes  to  whom 
this  was  addressed,  and  he  says  it  was  Hadrian. 

Besides,  "a  hearer  of  the  apostles  "  as  Quadratus  is  said 
to  have  been,  could  hardly  have  lived  long  after  A.  d.  124-6. 

In  addition  to  this,  the  character  of  the  Apology  indicates 
its  early  origin. 

Dr.  Harris  himself  gives  the  following  view  of  the  indica- 
tions as  to  the  date  of  the  Apology  in  its  style  and  contents  : 

"The  simplicity  of  the  style  of  the  Apology  is  in  favor  of 
an  early  date.  The  religious  ideas  and  practices  are  of  an 
antique  cast.  The  ethics  show  a  remarkable  continuity  with 
Jewish  ethics  :  the  care  for  the  stranger  and  the  friendless, 
the  burial  of  the  dead,  and  the  like,  are  given  as  characteristic 
virtues  both  of  Judaism  and  Christianity.  Indeed  we  may 
say  that  one  of  the  surprising  things  about  the  Apology  is 
the  friendly  tone  in  which  the  Jews  are  spoken  of.  One  cer- 
tainly would  not  suspect  that  the  chasm  between  the  Church 
and  the  Synagogue  had  become  as  practically  impassaljle 
as  we  find  it  in  the  middle  of  the  second  century.  There  is 
no  sign  of  the  hostility  to  the  Jews  which  we  find  in  the 
Martyrdom  of  Poly  carp,  and  nothing  like  the  severity  of  con- 
tempt which  we  find  in  the  Epistle  to  Diognetus.  If  the 
Church  is  not,  in  the  writer's  time,  under  the  wing  of  the 
Synagogue,  it  apparently  has  no  objection  to  taking  the 
Synagogue  occasionally  under  its  own  wing. 


Appendix  185 

"  Such  a  consideration  seems  to  be  a  mark  of  antiquity, 
and  one  would,  therefore,  prefer  to  believe,  if  it  were  pos- 
sible, that  the  Apology  was  earlier  than  the  revolt  under 
Bar-Cocheba. "     {Texts  and  Studies,  vol.  i,  No.  1,  p.  13.) 

The  editor  of  Cambridge  Texts  and  Studies,  Dr.  J.  Armi- 
tage  Robinson,  thinks  it  entirely  "possible  "  to  believe  it,  in 
spite  of  the  second  title,  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  trans- 
lator of  the  Greek  Apology  into  Syriac  has  dealt  very  freely 
with  his  original,  expunging  some  things,  and  adding  so 
many  others  that  the  Syriac  occupies  half  as  much  space 
again  as  the  Greek.  He  says  in  his  appendix  {Texts  and 
Studies,  vol.  i.  No.  1,  p.  75,  note) :  "  Mr.  Harris  inclines  to 
accept  this  second  title  as  the  true  one  ;  but  the  course  of 
the  present  argument  tends  to  show  that  the  Syriac  trans- 
lator has  introduced  many  arbitrary  changes  on  his  own  ac- 
count :  and  this  makes  me  more  unwilling  to  accept  his 
testimony  as  against  that  of  the  Armenian  version,  which 
has,  moreover,  the  explicit  statement  of  Eusebius  to  support 
it." 

He  also  notes  the  fact  that  the  Armenian  fragment  shows 
a  much  closer  correspondence  with  the  original  Greek  than 
does  the  Syriac  where  the  two  merely  translate.  ' '  The  ex- 
plicit statement  of  Eusebius  "  in  his  Chronicon  is  thus  given 
by  Dr.  Harris  : — 

"  1.  The  Armenian  version  of  the  Chronicon  gives  under 
the  year  A.  D.  124,  as  follows  : — 

01.  A.  abr.         Imp.  Rom. 

d226  2140  8e 

dAdrianus  Eleusinarum  verum  gnarus  fuit  multaque 
(dona)  Atheniensium  largitus  est. 

eRomauorum  ecclesiae  episcopatum  excipit  septimus 
Telesphorus  annis  XL 

"  Codratus,  apostolorum  auditor,  et  Aristides,  nostri 
dogmatis  (nostrse  vei)  philosophus  atheniensis,  dedere 
apologeticas  (apologise,  responsiouis)  ob  mandatum. "     The 


186  Appendix 

occasion  and  the  substance  of  the  mandate  concerning  the 
Christians,  the  "  Rescript  of  Hadrian,"  is  then  given. 

Dr.  Arraitage  Robinson  gives  very  clearly  the  evidence 
that  "the  Armenian  version  is  not  made  from  the  Syriac 
version  in  its  present  form  ; ' '  and  remarks  that  ' '  similar 
arguments  could  be  adduced  if  there  were  any  necessity,  to 
shov7  that  the  Syriac  version  is  independent  of  the 
Armenian. ' ' 

The  Armenian  version,  then,  is  an  independent  authority 
for  the  address  to  Hadian  alone. 

Dr.  Robinson  shows  the  unreliableness  of  the  Syriac  ver- 
sion by  comparing  it  with  a  Syriac  version  of  the  Oratio  ad 
Grsdcos  ascribed  to  Justin,  in  which  he  says,  * '  Variation  be- 
gins to  show  itself  immediately  after  the  first  sentence. ' ' 
In  this  Oratio  he  shows,  too,  how  the  Syriac  translator  in- 
serted particulars  not  in  the  original,  evidently  to  vaunt  his 
independent  knowledge.  A  similar  attempt  seems  to  have 
been  made  by  the  Syriac  translator  of  the  ApoJogy^  or  a 
copyist,  in  inserting  the  duplicate  address,  possibly  because 
of  a  tradition  that  it  was  presented  to  Antoninus  Pius  after 
its  presentation  to  Hadrian.' 

Dr.  Harris  notes  a  serious  error  in  punctuation  in  the  first 
sentence  of  the  Syriac  and  is  inclined  to  think  that  the  sign 
of  the  plural  is  a  mistake,  expressing  the  opinion  that  the 
Apology  was  addressed  to  Antoninus  Pius  alone,  after 
Hadrian's  reign.  In  order  to  make  this  consistent  with  the 
fact  that  Quadratus  delivered  an  Apology  at  the  same  time, 
he  has  either  to  identify  Quadratus  with  a  bishop  of  Athens 
of  that  name  who  flourished  about  170,  or,  else,  to  suppose 
that  the  two  Apologies  were  delivered  at  different  times  to 
different  emperors. 

I  think  all  will  agree  that  the  evidence,  both  from  the 

'"If  .  .  .  =  '  Renewed,  or  dedicated  again  to  .  .  . 
Antoninus  Pius,'  could  be  read,  both  headings  might  be 
retained." — Ante-Nicene  Fathers,  vol.  ix,  p.  263,  note. 


Appendix  187 

clear  statements  of  Eusebius  and  from  the  documents 
themselves,  is  reasonably  conclusive  that  Aristides,  an  Athe- 
nian philosopher,  and  Quadratus,  an  ''  auditor  ajwsiolomm,'^ 
delivered  their  Apologies  to  Hadrian  at  Athens  in  the  eighth 
year  of  his  reign,  A.  D.  124-126.  The  other  view  requires 
too  many  improbable  suppositions  and  readjustments  to 
make  it  at  all  credible. 

NOTE  5 
The  New  Testament  and  the  Classics 
The  great  advantages  we  enjoy  for  determining  the  text 
of  the  New  Testament  may  be  seen  when  we  remember  the 
vast  number  of  quotations  from  it  by  writers  of  the  second 
and  third  centuries,  the  large  number  of  versions  of  it  in 
several  languages  and  the  many  early  manuscripts  of  it 
which  still  exist.  The  case  of  the  Latin  and  Greek  classics 
presents  a  marked  contrast,  as  the  following  extract  from  the 
curator  of  manuscripts  in  the  British  Museum,  Frederic 
George  Kenyon,  D.  Lit,,  Ph.  D.,  will  show  :  "  But  of  the 
classics  we  have  no  original  autographs,  nor  any  copies 
nearly  contemporaneous  with  them.  The  intervals  which 
separate  the  composition  of  the  great  classics  from  the  date  of 
the  earliest  extant  manuscripts  of  them  must  be  numbered 
by  hundreds,  and  sometimes  by  thousands  of  years.  The 
plays  of  ^schylus  were  written  between  485  and  450  B.  c. 
and  the  earliest  extant  manuscript  of  them  (a  few  unimpor- 
tant scraps  excepted)  was  written  in  the  eleventh  century — 
an  interval  of  some  1,500  years.  For  Sophocles,  for  Thucyd- 
ides,  for  Herodotus,  the  interval  is  substantially  the  same; 
for  Pindar  and  Euripides  it  extends  to  1,600  years.  For 
Plato,  we  have  interesting  fragments  of  two  of  his  dialogues 
written  only  a  century  after  his  death  ;  but  for  the  greater 
part  of  his  works  we  are  dependent  on  manuscripts  eleven 
hundred  years  later.  Aristotle  (except  for  his  recently  re- 
covered history  of  the  Athenian  Constitution)  is  in  a  similar 


188  Appendix 

case ;  the  earliest  manuscript  of  the  Ethics  was  written  in 
the  tenth  century,  while  for  the  Politics  we  have  no  com- 
plete copy  earlier  than  the  fourteenth.  We  are  better  off  in 
regard  to  some  of  the  Latin  writers.  Virgil,  who  died  19 
B.  c,  is  represented  by  several  manuscripts  which  may  be 
assigned  to  the  fifth  century,  or  even  to  the  fourth  ;  consid- 
erable portions  of  Livy  exist  in  copies  of  the  fifth  and  sixth 
centuries  ;  there  is  a  precious  (though  badly  damaged)  manu- 
script of  Plautus  which  belongs  to  the  fourth  century  ;  while 
there  are  fragments  of  Cicero  which  may  go  back  to  an  even 
earlier  date.  But,  for  Tacitus,  we  have  an  interval  of  750 
years  before  we  reach  our  earliest  copy  of  him ;  for  Horace  and 
Lucretius,  900  years  ;  while  in  the  case  of  Catullus  the  most 
spontaneously  poetic  spirit  in  all  the  literature  of  Eorae,  we 
are  dependent  upon  a  few  manuscri^jts  written  nearly  1,450 
years  after  his  death.  It  is  worth  while  to  note,  in  passing, 
how  greatl}'  superior  in  respect  of  antiquity  of  attestation  is 
the  Greek  Testament.  The  shortest  interval  which  sepa- 
rates any  classical  author  from  any  substantial  manuscript 
of  his  works  is  some  400  years,  while  in  the  majority  of 
cases,  it  ranges  from  1,000  to  1,500  years  ;  but  of  the  New 
Testament  we  have  complete  copies  within  250  years  of  the 
date  at  which  many  of  the  books  composing  it  were  written." 

Again  he  says,  ' '  Virgil  is  the  only  classical  author  whose 
text  is  on  the  same  footing  as  that  of  the  New  Testament,  it 
being  mainly  based  on  uncial  manuscripts.  There  are  three 
substantially  complete  manuscripts  of  Virgil  written  in 
capitals  (which  differ  from  uncials  only  in  being  of  squarer 
and  stiffer  formation).  Besides  these,  there  are  three  im- 
perfect manuscripts  in  the  same  style ;  and  though  this 
amount  of  uncial  evidence  is  incomparably  less  than  in  the 
case  of  the  New  Testament,  it  is  much  greater  than  is  found 
in  any  other  classical  writer." — From  article  in  Harper'' s 
Magazine,  August,  1902,  on  The  Lineage  of  the  Classics. 

The  advantage  of  the  New  Testament  in  the  matter  of 


Appendix  189 

manuscripts  could  hardly  be  better  stated  in  a  few  words 
than  we  find  it  given  in  the  following  extract  : — 

' '  A  few  precious  copies  written  on  vellum  or  parchment 
have  come  down  to  us  from  a  very  early  period,  the  most 
important  of  which  are  (1)  the  Vatican,  styled  Codex  B, 
preserved  in  the  Vatican  Library  at  Eome,  and  dating  from 
the  fourth  century  ;  (2)  the  Sinaitic  Codex  discovered 
by  Tischendorf  in  St.  Catherine  Convent  at  the  foot  of  Mt. 
Sinai  in  1859,  now  deposited  at  St.  Petersburg,  likewise  of 
the  fourth  century  ;  (3)  the  Alexandrine  (Codex  A),  pre- 
served in  the  British  Museum,  and  dating  from  the  fifth 
century.  These,  and  other  ancient  manuscripts  to  the  num- 
ber of  about  a  hundred  are  called  Uncials,  because  written 
with  capital  letters  without  any  separation  between  the 
words — the  othere  of  a  more  modern  character  being  called 
Cursives,  because  written  in  a  running  hand.  Of  the  latter 
there  are  about  two  thousand,  an  immense  array  of  wit- 
nesses compared  with  the  few  manuscripts  of  classical  works 
preserved  to  us,  which  can  generally  be  counted  on  the  ten 
fingers." — McGlymont's  New  Testament  and  its  writers,  small 
ed.,  pp.  2,  3. 

The  author  does  not  mention  Codex  D  (Codex  Bezce),  now 
brought  into  special  prominence  by  Nestle,  Harris  and 
others. 

In  a  later  article  in  the  same  magazine  (Nov.  1902),  Mr. 
Kenyon  says : — 

'"We  owe  our  knowledge  of  most  of  the  great  works  of 
Greek  and  Latin  literature — ^Eschylus,  Sophocles,  Thucyd- 
ides,  Horace,  Lucretius,  Tacitus,  and  many  more — to  manu- 
scripts written  from  900  to  1,500  years  after  their  authors' 
deaths  ;  while  of  therNew  Testament  we  have  two  excellent 
and  approximately  complete  copies  at  an  interval  of  only 
250  years.  Again,  of  the  classical  writers  we  have  as  a 
rule,  only  a  few  score  of  copies  (often  less),  of  which  one  or 
two  stand  out  as  decisively  superior  to  the  rest  ;  but  of  the 


1 90  Appendix 

New  Testament  we  have  more  than  3,000  copies  (besides  the 
very  large  number  of  versions),  and  many  of  these  have  dis- 
tinct and  independent  value." 

But  the  versions,  in  various  languages,  form  a  valuable 
source  of  information  as  to  the  original  text  of  the  New 
Testament.  "In  spite  of  the  ravages  of  time,  more  than 
three  thousand  copies  of  the  Greek  New  Testament,  whole 
or  in  part,  still  exist ;  and  to  these  must  be  added  the  copies 
of  the  early  translations  into  other  languages— Syriac,  Coptic, 
Armenian,  Gothic,  Latin,  etc. — which  give  invaluable  assist- 
ance to  the  scholar  in  ascertaining  the  correct  text  of  the 
Scriptures. ' ' 

Besides  all  this,  early  Christian  writings  which  have  come 
down  to  us  with  the  words  of  the  New  Testament  imbedded 
and  preserved  in  them  not  only  prove  the  existence  of  it  in 
their  day,  but  indicate  its  text.  It  has  been  asserted  by  a 
competent  scholar  that  he  has  found  by  personal  examina- 
tion two-thirds  of  the  New  Testament  in  the  extant  remnant 
of  the  Greek  writings  of  Origen  alone,  as  one  instance.  This 
source  of  evidence  is  almost  entirely  lacking  in  the  case  of 
the  classics. 


NOTE  6 
The  So-Called  Gospel  Accokding  to  the  Hebrews 

Some  readers  may  wish  to  know  more  about  the  so-called 
Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews,  as  a  certain  class  of  scholars 
are  disposed  to  urge  its  claims  to  something  like  equality 
with  the  canonical  gospels,  while  some  infidels,  as  we  have 
seen,  assert  its  priority  in  date  to  all  of  them. 

An  article  in  the  Biblical  World  for  September,  1902, 
claims  that  it  was  identical  with  the  Hebrew  Logia  of  Mat- 
thew mentioned  by  Papias  (about  A.  D  140),  who  says,  as 
quoted  by  Eusebius  (H.  E.  Ill,  xxxix.),  "Matthew  com- 
posed his  history  in  the  Hebrew  dialect,   and    every  one 


Appendix  191 

translated  it  as  he  was  able."  The  writer  represents  this  as 
the  view  of  most  modern  scholars. 

As  we  have  seen  above,  Dr.  Bernhard  Weiss  unhesitat- 
ingly affirms  that  it  has  no  connection  with  this  work 
(which  Hilgenfeld  and  many  other  scholars  think  never 
really  existed  except  in  the  misguided  imagination  of  the 
weak-minded  Papias)  and  shows  that  the  fragments  of  the 
Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews  are  taken  from  the  three 
synoptic  gospels,  while  there  are  evident  traces  of  the  gos- 
pel of  John  in  words  or  expressions  peculiar  to  that  gospel 
— all  being  changed,  of  course,  to  sustain  the  views  of  the 
Ebionites  or  the  Nazarenes  who  used  them.  The  same  pas- 
sages vary  much  in  different  recensions  of  this  so-called 
gospel,  as  is  shown  especially  in  the  different  accounts  given 
in  different  copies  quoted  by  Epiphanius  and  Jerome.  It 
should  be  remembered  that  our  synoptic  gospels  were  over 
three  hundred  years  old  when  the  Gospel  of  the  Hebrews  was 
quoted  by  Epiphanius,  and  still  older  when  quoted  by 
Jerome,  so  that  the  heretics  of  these  centuries  had  had 
ample  time  to  manipulate  and  change  them  according  to 
their  various  or  changing  ideas.  The  differences  in  the  ac- 
counts of  the  baptism  of  Christ  and  the  descent  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  upon  him  show  this  with  special  clearness.  By  this 
time,  too,  these  errorists  had  set  up  the  claim  that  the  Gos- 
pel according  to  the  Hebrews  was  the  work  of  the  apostle 
Matthew. 

Now,  the  discovery  of  the  Diatessaron  of  Tatian  and  the 
Lewis  palimpsest  of  the  four  gospels  has  made  the  whole 
matter  plain  \  and  strange  to  say,  the  writer  of  the  article 
in  the  Biblical  World  does  not  mention  these  discoveries  at 
all.  If,  throughout  the  Diatessaron,  composed  soon  after 
A.  D.  150,  our  four  gosxjels  alone  are  used — and  this  is  the 
case — then  there  is  the  proof  that  they  and  they  alone  were 
the  gospels  of  the  Christian  world  at  that  period,  just  as 
Irenaeus  testifies  that  they  were  in  his  time,  fifty  years  later. 


192  Appendix 

The  Lewis  palimpsest,  too,  has  our  four  gospels  alone.  If 
the  Diatessaron  and  the  palimpsest  had  contained  the  pe- 
culiar readings  of  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews,  a  cer- 
tain class  of  critics  would  have  been  jubilant.  Now,  they 
are  entirely  silent  about  these  discoveries  and  act  as  if  they 
had  nothing  to  do  with  the  matter,  when,  in  fact,  they  pre- 
sent the  clearest  proof  that  our  gospels  alone  were  the  gos- 
pels of  the  Christian  world  during  the  half  centur}^  after  the 
death  of  the  last  of  the  apostles.  Nicholson,  who  wrote  his 
elaborate  treatise  on  the  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews  be- 
fore these  discoveries  were  made,  used  great  diligence  in 
gathering  and  arranging  the  thirty  fragments  which  he 
thought  certainly  belonged  to  this  so-called  gospel,  together 
with  thirty -four  others  which  he  thought  probably  or  possi- 
bly belonged  to  it.  But  when  he  comes  to  marshaling  these 
fragments  and  interx^reting  their  peculiarities  in  the  en- 
deavor to  sustain  his  theory  that  Matthew  wrote,  at  one 
time,  the  Hebrew  Gospel  (which  Nicholson  identifies  with 
this  Gospel  according  to  the  Hebrews),  and  at  another  time, 
our  canonical  Greek  Matthew,  he  reminds  one  much  more  of 
an  adept  in  the  arts  of  legerdemain  than  of  a  sober  reasoner. 
The  legitimate  conclusion  from  the  facts  which  he  adduces 
is  that  which  is  made  clear  by  the  discovery  of  the  Diatessa- 
ron and  the  palimpsest — namely,  that  the  Gospel  according 
to  the  Hebrews  is  a  heretical  document  drawn  from  our  gos- 
pels, with  additions,  omissions  and  changes  of  text,  and  not 
recognized  hj  the  Christian  Church  at  the  middle  of  the 
second  century. 


NOTE  7 
Haenack's  Hoxest  Acknowledgment 
In  a  review  of  Dr.  Armitage  Robinson's  book,  The  Study 
of  the   Gospels,    The  Churchman,  London,  has  this   to   say 
(Sep.,  1902):  — 


Appendix  193 

*'He  [Dr.  Eobinson],  mentions  moreover,  that  Dr.  Har- 
nack,  in  sending  to  him  his  own  Chronology  of  Early  Chris- 
tian Literature,  in  which  he  'approximates  to  the  older 
views, '  wrote  that  '  he  hoped  that,  as  to  its  main  positions, 
we  should  find  ourselves  in  agreement,  and  that  differences 
would  henceforward  appear  in  the  interpretation  of  the 
books  rather  than  in  the  problems  of  their  date  and  authen- 
ticity. ' 

"It  is,  in  fact,  an  immense  gain  to  the  Christian  argu- 
ment that  the  most  distinguished  ecclesiastical  scholar  in 
Germany  has  substantially  admitted  the  truth  of  the  tradi- 
tion of  the  Chm'ch  respecting  the  dates,  and  to  a  great  ex- 
tent, the  authorship  of  the  books  of  the  Kcay  Testament. 
The  German  criticism,  which,  toward  the  end  of  the  last 
century,  used  to  be  thrown  at  the  heads  of  '  Apologists  '  in 
England  by  such  controversialists  as  the  late  Professor  Hux- 
ley, is  now  acknowledged  in  Germany  itself — in  Berlin  itself 
—to  have  been  mistaken  ;  and  the  result  of  the  controversy 
for  fifty  years  is  the  rehabilitation,  in  the  most  important 
points,  of  the  ancient  Christian  tradition. ' ' 


DATE  DUE 

^ 

~ , 

GAYLORD 

PRINTED  IN  U.S.A. 

